I haven't been on in a couple weeks but the player base was on a pretty steady decline. The whole PSN debacle really sucked the air out of the room. Otherwise the game was tons of fun despite its issues.
As a newbie, it will be a “don’t know what you’re missing” situation. As long as you’re in the lucky group not affected by performance issues and some of the more outrageous bugs, it should be a good time. But if you’re not in a hurry or facing a sale, I’d recommend waiting a bit longer to see if this upcoming patch addresses any of those tech problems.
I’ve never played helldivers, but I’ve followed this community and it makes me wish it was my cup of tea (it isn’t and never will be, sadly) because fuck that seems so much fun to deal with! Like fr fun :)