‘Borderlands’ Game Franchise Is Enjoying A Popularity Surge, Thanks To Movie Flop

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. While Eli Roth’s sorry excuse of a live-action Borderlands movie has dragged its progenitor’s reputation through the mud, it also brought longtime fans back to the games in droves.

As noted by GameSpot, the disappointing theatrical release saw a moderate increase in the player base for Borderlands 3, with SteamDB recording the highest number of concurrent players since February 2023. The 2019 title peaked at 12,379 players recently, four times the figure last week. Similarly, Borderlands 2 topped out at 7,938 concurrent players — nowhere near its all-time high, of course, but still impressive — and joins the original Borderlands and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel entries in reviving interest for the post-apocalyptic series.

The popularity spike comes after developer Gearbox Software added a new feature to Borderlands 3, allowing individuals to skip the entire main story with a new character. There are some prerequisites to be met, though: apart from a max-level character, they will need to complete the campaign at least once.

The beginnings of the looter-shooter franchise can be traced back to 2009. Set in the distant planet of Pandora, Borderlands focuses on a group of four Vault Hunters and their search for the Vault, which is rumoured to contain advanced alien technology and countless riches. Along the way, they will have to piece together clues to the location, battle against the hostile wildlife and bandits called Psychos, and prevent the Atlas Corporation and its paramilitary forces from reaching the Vault first.

It made Guinness Book of World Records history with over 17 million possible guns generated, and spawned four DLCs as well as a remastered version for PC, PS4, and Xbox One in 2019. The game’s sophomore entry, Borderlands 2, is largely considered to be the best of the trilogy.

Si Jia

Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.