Does Helldivers 2 have split-screen co-op?

Helldivers 2 is one of 2024's most surprising smash-hits that came without any pre-release fanfare but took the AAA gaming landscape by storm. The game is everything fans expect from a co-op shooter, in the same vein as titles like Left 4 Dead or the original Halo games from Bungie. Given its co-op-centric nature, many fans might wonder if it supports a split-screen mode.

Split-screen co-op was a norm for most multi-player/ co-op games back in the early 2000s. The early 2000s to 2010s used to be the golden era of multiplayer, with games like Halo CE, Gears of War, and Call of Duty being the most popular AAA franchises, but they have mostly been forgotten in favor of online multiplayer.

Outside of Nintendo flagship games, there are very few AAA titles that offer a split-screen co-op mode. While there are a few recent games out there that do support split-screen multiplayer, Arrowhead Game Studio's Helldivers 2, unfortunately, isn't one of them.

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Does Helldivers 2 have split-screen co-op mode?

While it would've been a fantastic addition to the already stellar package of Helldivers 2, split-screen co-op isn't an option in the game, at least at the time of writing this article. There's a slim chance that such a mode might get added later given it's a live service game.

Helldivers 2 is built with online co-op in mind, and much like a PvP mode isn't something Arrowhead Game Studios has on cards right now, a split-screen co-op mode is also not something fans should expect to arrive for the game any time soon.

Split-screen co-op is a dying genre, but one that needs to be preserved, especially with online multiplayer games being common, especially in the AAA gaming sphere. We did get a few good split-screen games recently, courtesy of EA Originals and Hazelight Studios, with their most recent title, It Takes Two, being crowned the Game of the Year 2021.

However, despite split-screen co-op being one of the most sought-after features for most co-op game fans, it's still something that most AAA titles miss out on. The most recent example is Halo Infinite, which, despite promising campaign co-op and split-screen, never delivered these features.

The only AAA publisher that still pushes for split-screen co-op, surprisingly or unsurprisingly, depending on who you ask, is Nintendo. Almost every other Nintendo flagship, from Super Mario to Kirby to Animal Crossing, tends to feature local or split-screen co-op without requiring players to rely on online multiplayer to enjoy co-op gameplay.