Helldivers 2 on Twitch Has an Embedding Problem

Highlights

• Helldivers 2 surpasses the original game’s popularity, retains over 300k players on Steam, adds community-unlocked content, and sparks online discussions.
• Twitch embedding debates arise, with concerns over boosting view count artificially and deterring viewers from active communities and content creators streaming Helldivers 2.
• The issue with embedding on Twitch affects Helldivers 2’s community focus, and the biggest channel doing this shows progress discrepancies and outdated content.

While the original game did have its following and fair share of supporters, Helldivers 2 blew those numbers out of the water when it first came out, ever-increasing its player count on Steam and retaining over 300,000 players at a given time, which is incredible for a month-old game. Of course, this led to the tile becoming a massive point of discussion online for gamers, and its live-service approach is already paying off in various ways, such as Helldivers 2 adding mechs as a community unlock. However, as often happens with games that prove to be massive hits for audiences, there are some issues surrounding Helldivers 2‘s popularity – namely, the game may have a huge embedding problem on Twitch.

Embedding on Twitch is nothing new, and it has always been a controversial topic due to the platform’s policy regarding viewbotting. Embedding is not against Twitch’s terms of service, but the use (and abuse) of it can sometimes lead to sites and other platforms boosting their view count artificially, and that seems to be what’s happening with Helldivers 2. Recently, popular content creator Gothalion took to Twitter to bring attention to a specific Twitch user who has been dominating the Helldivers 2 directory with what is essentially embedding gameplay 24/7 for quite some time, and this can be especially problematic for both the game and its community.

Helldivers 2’s Twitch Embedding Problem Explained

Why Twitch Embedding Can be Problematic and How it Differentiates From Viewbotting

One of the problems with embedding is that the user or entity doing it may even have the best of intentions, such as embedding their Twitch channel with past streaming sessions or similar content onto their main website, made specifically to direct viewers to the streaming channel. However, even in such cases, embedding on Twitch creates “void spaces,” in the sense that the channel that is embedded is actually empty at that time, and so is its chat. This doesn’t reflect on the outside looking in when one sees hundreds or thousands of “viewers” on a given channel, which may very well sit at the top of its directory.

In the case of Helldivers 2, a single user is at the very top of the directory with thousands of viewers, and this is a twofold problem. For starters, Twitch users may find this channel first and foremost when looking for Helldivers 2 Twitch content, possibly for Twitch drops, only to discover that the chat is empty and the streamer is not even there. Furthermore, this actively detracts viewers from active communities and content creators who are actually live, creating a vicious cycle where they are not promoted as much as the embedding channel, and thus the game and their content are hurt as a result.

Why Twitch Embedding is Bad For Helldivers 2

Helldivers 2 is About Community, and Twitch Embedding Ruins That

In this specific case, the Twitch streamer embedding Helldivers 2 content does so 24/7, and their progress doesn’t match. For example, Helldivers 2‘s level cap is 50, and by streaming “legitimately” for 24 hours a day one would hit it quite fast, whereas the user called out by Gothalion is below level 40. Not only that, but it seems that the replays are from past patches.

This can hurt the game quite a bit, especially so because Helldivers 2 calls on its community to play together and unlock objectives as a whole. Embedding content on Twitch 24/7 doesn’t foster the community because the channel’s chat is empty and the content shown in the videos is not even reflective of the current experience due to being pre-recorded (on different patches, too). There may be no direct solution to this unless Twitch changes its embedding policy, maybe by making viewers gained this way not count toward directories and live streaming. Until then, though, Helldivers 2 may be stuck with this issue.