How Helldivers 2 and Palworld Blew Up Through Creator Clips

How big did Helldivers 2 and Palworld get?

Bigger than almost anyone expected, very fast.

Palworld also had one of the biggest launch weeks Twitch had seen, with about 40 million hours watched, according to StreamElements.

Neither was a sure thing. Palworld came from Pocketpair, a small Japanese studio best known for Craftopia. Helldivers 2 was a sequel to a niche 2015 game. Both caught fire through what people posted, not what the publishers paid for.

Not every game will take off like this, but every launch can be set up so creators are ready if it starts to. INFLUENCE lines up creators across short-form and YouTube before launch week, so when your game has a moment, there are people in place to spread it.

What made these games so clip-able?

Both games turn ordinary play into stories people want to share. That’s a design choice, not a marketing one, and it’s the biggest reason creators kept posting.

Helldivers 2 runs on chaos and teamwork. Friendly fire is always on, airstrikes can land on your own squad, and missions fall apart in spectacular ways. PlayStation said players were sharing videos of “random events, friendly fire, accidental deaths” from launch day, and that memes about one disastrous battle, Malevelon Creek, “pulled even more players into the game.” (PlayStation Blog)

Palworld runs on absurdity. Cute creatures, guns and factory work make for screenshots that explain themselves. “Pokémon with guns” wasn’t a tagline anyone paid for, but it became the game’s pitch anyway. (Euronews)

Here’s what both games had, and what to check for in yours:

You can’t make your game funnier in a brief, but you can make sure creators find its most clip-able moments fast. INFLUENCE briefs each creator around the moments that suit their style, whether that’s chaos, comedy or skill, so they’re not spending their first hour hunting for what makes your game worth sharing.

Did creators or the publishers drive the launches?

Mostly creators and players, with the publishers getting out of the way at the right moments.

Creators made the first wave. For Helldivers 2, big YouTube impressions videos went up on launch day and reached more than a million views within a week. Twitter clips of squads falling apart racked up tens of thousands of likes in days. (Know Your Meme) For Palworld, Twitch did a lot of the work in launch week, with top streamers spending real hours in the game.

Players made the second wave. Once the creator clips spread, players posted their own. That’s the part money can’t buy: when your audience starts making your ads for free.

The publishers leaned in. Arrowhead famously treated the community like part of the game, with an in-game “Galactic War” that players’ choices actually changed. Every twist gave creators a fresh reason to post. It’s a reminder that live events and updates are creator moments too.

That first wave is the one piece you can plan. INFLUENCE builds it across many creators and platforms, so your launch has a strong start. When your community starts adding its own momentum, we can bring creators back in for each new update without starting over.

What’s the flip side of going viral?

Scrutiny. When millions of people are suddenly watching your game, every misstep gets amplified just as fast as the good moments.

Both games learned this:

• Palworld drew comparisons to Pokémon from day one. The Pokémon Company said it had not given permission to use its IP and would investigate. (Euronews) The same “Pokémon with guns” line that made it famous also made it a target.

• Helldivers 2 faced a backlash in May 2024 over a requirement to link PlayStation Network accounts on PC, leading to boycotts and a wave of negative Steam reviews. (Know Your Meme)

• Servers buckled. Both games struggled with demand early on. Creators streamed the queues and errors too.

The lesson isn’t “don’t go viral.” It’s that creators will cover your mistakes as eagerly as your wins, so be honest and quick when something goes wrong.

A bad day goes better when creators hear from you first. On an INFLUENCE campaign there’s a single line to every creator involved, so one honest update reaches all of them within the hour, and the “it’s fixed” videos can be booked the moment your patch ships.

What can you copy without a viral hit?

You can’t plan to be the next Palworld. Most games, even good ones, won’t break out like that. But you can set up every launch so that if something takes off, it has room to grow:

• Find your clip-able moment before launch. Watch playtests and note what makes people laugh, yell or replay. That’s what creators should show first.

• Go wide, not tall. Both games spread through lots of creators and players at once, not one big endorsement. A campaign with dozens of creators gives you more chances at a breakout.

• Keep it fresh. Updates, events and community moments give creators new reasons to post weeks after launch.

• Be ready to scale. If something starts to catch, more creators in the next 48 hours can turn a spark into a fire.

Scaling up fast when a clip starts working means booking new creators in days, not weeks. INFLUENCE can add creators to a running campaign quickly, within the max CPM and budget cap you’ve set, so you can lean into a moment while it’s still happening. Our guide to how much gaming creator campaigns cost shows how to plan that budget.

Helldivers 2 and Palworld weren’t marketed into success. They were built to be shared, and creators did the sharing. You can’t copy the luck, but you can copy the setup: find what’s clip-able, put it in front of plenty of creators, and be ready to move when something catches. If you’d like help with the creator side, that’s what we built INFLUENCE to do.