Randy Pitchford says Borderlands 3 has twice as many players on PC as Borderlands 2 did

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Which is a lot.

(Image credit: Gearbox)

Borderlands 3 launched on September 13, and I don't know about you but my Twitter feed is full of people talking about it (and pictures of dogs, obviously). People having opinions about a game doesn't necessarily translate into people playing it, but according to Gearbox CEO and part-time magician Randy Pitchford, "the launch day peak concurrent players of Borderlands 3 is about *twice-as-high* as the all time peak concurrent players of Borderlands 2."

That's on PC of course. According to Steamcharts, Borderlands 2 peaked at 123,596 players when it launched seven years ago, while SteamDB estimates 124,678 players. Double that would be somewhere in the 247,000–249,000 player range. Which is a lot of people trying to figure out where the general challenges menu is hidden (it's on the map but only if you zoom out to galaxy level), and why pressing F doesn't activate boost in vehicles any more (it's the shift key now, you're welcome).

Pitchford followed up by saying, "Best numbers in Gearbox history! No promises, but we *might* be ready for me to try a SHiFT code test with the Golden Key system tomorrow. If we do, it will probably be a time-limited key."

If you're playing, make sure to stock up on Borderlands 3 Shift codes. And here's our guide to the best builds for each class. I'm rocking a close-range Amara relying on shotguns myself.

Jody Macgregor
Jody Macgregor
Weekend/AU Editor

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.