Everyone is playing Borderlands 3 ⁠– even without sales on Steam

(Image credit: Gearbox)

Are you playing Borderlands 3 yet? Judging by comments from Gearbox's CEO, Randy Pitchford, over Twitter, it seems like everyone else is.

As reported by GameSpot, the latest Borderlands title looks to be performing incredibly well on PC, despite only having been on sale for a handful of days - and not having the usual gaming audience over at Steam.

The decision to make Borderlands 3 exclusive on PC to the Epic Games Store certainly ruffled a few feathers - especially the plumage of those used to the Steam marketplace who didn't like feeling strong-armed into using another platform, even one that gave a fairer share of profits to a game's developers.

This hasn't stopped Borderlands 3 from "greatly exceed[ing] expectations", though, with twice the number of concurrent players on its launch day than at any time in Borderlands 2's history.

Without screenshots of actual data, it's hard to gauge what exactly the number of players is – but if the claims made by the CEO are true it sounds like a strong start for the game, and one that will only increase when Borderlands 3 does come to Steam in April 2020.

The launch of Borderlands 3 has been somewhat overshadowed by various legal allegations around Pitchford, so the company will no doubt welcome the opportunity to report some positive news about the platform.

That, combined with player anger over Borderlands 3's exclusivity to Epic's games platform, could have been catastrophic for the game's release, but it looks like the desire to play a quality game is winning out over those other considerations.

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Henry St Leger

Henry is a freelance technology journalist, and former News & Features Editor for TechRadar, where he specialized in home entertainment gadgets such as TVs, projectors, soundbars, and smart speakers. Other bylines include Edge, T3, iMore, GamesRadar, NBC News, Healthline, and The Times.

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