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Borderlands 3 was the second highest-grossing PC game in the world for September

Borderlands 3 had a massive launch, pushing the franchise beyond $1 billion in revenue

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October 22, 2019 Borderlands 3 is hitting sales numbers that most triple-A games do not.

Early reports on Borderlands 3 sales have been strong, as the September release set records for both the series and publisher 2K. But while the company said the game saw “incredibly strong” sales on PC, we didn’t have much context for how well it did on the platform – and since Borderlands 3 is the biggest Epic Store exclusive yet, the industry and fans alike were especially curious to see how the title fared.

Borderlands 3 was the second highest-grossing PC game of September, as ranked by SuperData’s worldwide earnings chart. That puts it just above Riot’s venerable MOBA, League of Legends, and just behind South Korean free-to-play beat-’em’-up, Dungeon Fighter Online. Borderlands 3 sold 3.3 digital units throughout September, though we don’t know how that breaks down across consoles and PC.

It is extremely rare to see a traditional, triple-A release release hit this PC earnings chart at all – the list is typically dominated by free-to-play titles with astronomical worldwide popularity. This is a bit of a down month for digital spending, though the effects were bigger on console than PC. Either way, Borderlands 3 is the only traditional, $60 PC release to rank as high as number two this year – if Epic Store critics slowed down the game’s momentum, it wasn’t by much.

In a press release shortly after launch, publisher 2K announced that Borderlands 3 had sold more than five million copies in its first five days, spread across digital and physical console and PC sales. In that period, the new sequel had sold 50% more than its 2012 predecessor Borderlands 2.

Those figures make Borderlands 3 the fastest-selling title in 2K history, as well as the company’s highest-selling PC release in a given five-day window. Given that 2K also published GTA V, that’s pretty impressive, especially when you consider that the game’s release makes Borderlands 2K’s second franchise to make more than $1 billion.

Unsurprisingly in this day and age, the vast majority of copies of the game were sold digitally. More surprisingly is the game’s success on the Epic Games store – 2K says that Borderlands 3 broke the platform’s pre-order records, that overall sales exceeded expectations, and that “PC sales of the title through the Epic Games Store have been incredibly strong.”

But Borderlands 3 isn’t only breaking the bank. 2K also confirms that Twitch viewership for the game’s launch is far higher than the series has achieved in the past. As well as claiming the top spot on the streaming service on launch day, the game has racked up more than 14 million hours watched, which is more than half of what Borderlands 2 has managed over the past seven years.

This success comes as little surprise, however. Thanks to Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford, we already knew that the Borderlands 3 PC player count was double Borderlands 2’s all-time peak. You can dig into the best co-op games on PC if you’re looking for more looting and or shooting to do with your friends.