Gearbox’s MOBA infused FPS Battleborn appears to be struggling on PC, with it even failing to pull in the same amount of numbers as the developer’s previous game Borderlands 2. Meanwhile, Blizzard has announced that the recently concluded Overwatch beta managed to attract a whopping 9.7 million players over the course of the week it was online.
According to Steam Charts, Battleborn is pulling in around 2,500 concurrent players, whereas Borderlands 2 is currently sustaining 3,100 players despite having been released four years ago. Over the last 30 days, Borderlands 2 has achieved an average of 5,642 players daily, compared to Battleborn‘s only slightly higher tally of 5,844 players since its launch. While Battleborn creative director Randy Varnell described Battleborn’s launch as “pretty good,” adding that the game is “tracking just ahead of where Borderlands was [in] sales,” these PC numbers aren’t exactly encouraging considering that the game has only been on the market for 10 days thus far.
Also See: Battleborn vs. Overwatch: Which is the Game for You?
While this obviously doesn’t take into account the number of players on the PS4 and Xbox One versions of Battleborn, the PC crowd is a big market for Gearbox following the success of Borderlands 2 on the platform, so its lackluster performance is not good news for the company. Though the game topped the UK chart in the week of its release, the fears that the game would be overshadowed by the upcoming Overwatch may be justified judging by its traction on Steam.
Battleborn publisher 2K Games’ decision to release the game in the same month as Overwatch raised some eyebrows, with many feeling that prospective buyers of the game would instead choose to hold onto their money in order to buy Blizzard’s FPS instead. Unfortunately for 2K and Gearbox, these Steam numbers suggest that this might be the case, and the impending release of Overwatch will likely spell bad news for the game’s future.
