Borderlands 3 is giving Gearbox its "best numbers in Gearbox history", says CEO Randy Pitchford

Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has stated that Borderlands 3 has twice as many players on PC as Borderlands 2 did at launch despite its Epic Game store PC-exclusivity deal.

"Fun Fact: On PC, the data is that the launch day peak concurrent players of Borderlands 3 is about *twice-as-high* as the all time peak concurrent players of Borderlands 2," Pitchford wrote on Twitter. "WOW! You guys are great!"

"Incredible day with new peak concurrency (and climbing)," Pitchford added the following day. "Best numbers in Gearbox history!"

"Would have been even higher if it was on steam..." replied one contrarian. "So convenient that every EGS exclusive seems to launch with record numbers. Sounds completely legitimate!" added another.

Of course, Pitchford is only referring to PC-numbers here, and to date, he's not revealed how the numbers are doing on console side. However, as PC Gamer notes, Steamcharts states Borderlands 2 peaked at 123,596 players when it launched seven years ago, while SteamDB estimates is a little higher at 124,678 players. Double that would suggest Borderlands 3's peak concurrency sits somewhere around 248,000 players on PC.

As Wes reported yesterday, Borderlands 3 came out this week, and players are reporting a raft of technical issues with the game. On console, Gearbox's looter shooter suffers from framerate problems. Specifically, players are reporting a stutter in the PlayStation 4 Pro's performance mode, which is supposed to give you a 60fps experience. But this stutter appears widespread across platforms and modes.

There's a lot of lag, too, particularly when playing split-screen couch co-op and one player goes into their ECHOdevice during heavy combat.

Gearbox's own forum has a section for Borderlands 3, which is packed with troubleshooting threads started by players asking for help. But it's the Borderlands 2 Steam page where most discussion is being had - and not all of it is helpful or wanted.