The release of Borderlands 4 was a tremendous high for the Borderlands community. Throughout the months leading up to the release, countless fan events, trailers, and promotions took place, showcasing the game and its badass Vault Hunters. The culmination of this was a fairly strong release for Gearbox, with many praising the game and the new direction of the story compared to its predecessor, Borderlands 3. Across the board, many reviewers, including us, gave Borderlands 4 scores of around 7 to 9, with there being a lot of emphasis on the fun gameplay, interesting characters, and overall darker tone.
Unfortunately, the honeymoon state of Borderlands 4 is officially over, and many are starting to see the negative side of the game. At this point, Borderlands 4 has officially hit a record for any game in the series, and that record is the one for fastest player count drop.
Borderlands 4 Player Count is Lower Than Its Predecessors at This Time
Currently, Borderlands 4 is seeing player count peaks on Steam of around 13,000 to 20,000. At the time of launch, the peaks were around 304,000. That is a drop of around 94% within the first two months of the game’s release, but how does this compare to the predecessors of Borderlands 4? Well, Borderlands 3, which launched first on Epic Games and still had a larger following on the platform, peaked on Steam at 93,820 players. Two months later, the third mainline entry in the series still had peaks of around 34,500. That is a loss of around 67% of the player base.
Next, let’s move on to Borderlands 2. At the time of its launch on Steam, the second mainline title saw peaks of around 124,000 players. Two months later, those peaks were still around 31,400. That is a loss of 75%.
It is important to note that Borderlands 4 had a significantly higher PC player count than any of its predecessors. Despite launching on Epic Games first, even Borderlands 3 only managed to reach an approximate player count peak of 250,000. This ultimately makes the loss of player much more significant, as it shows Borderlands 4 went from the most played in the series to the least played within the same timespan as its predecessors.
Many factors contribute to the decrease in player count. For starters, Borderlands 4 players have noticed a significant lack of content once they hit the endgame. With the game’s main focus being on farming the many bosses for legendary gear, there isn’t much to do. Many have also stated that farming is unappealing, as the dedicated drop rate from bosses is abysmal, with the rate hovering around 3%.
Borderlands 4 was also plagued by numerous issues at launch, leading many to turn away from the game on Steam, as they did not want to fight through the bugs and glitches to play the game properly. Since then, most of the issues we have encountered have been resolved, but some persistent problems still plague the game. a final, albeit smaller nail in the metaphorical coffin, was the Horrors of Kairos seasonal event, which just didn’t land well with the community, with some Reddit posts sharing the sentiment of it being worse than the notoriously bad Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands DLC.
There is hope on the horizon, however, as the How Rush Saved Mercenary Day DLC is just around the corner, which will add multiple missions, a new boss, cosmetics, and new legendary gear. Players can also expect the first invincible boss, Bloomreaper, to appear before the end of the year. There is also the new Vault Hunter, the first major DLC, and the second bounty pack coming in the first quarter of 2026.
