The Borderlands movie is so trash, so bereft of merit, that it’s driven Borderlands refugees back to the old games. In the wake of the film’s release earlier this month we’ve seen player counts spike for Borderlands, Borderlands 2, and Borderlands 3, as these poor souls search desperately for a reason to still care about the IP.

It’s frankly a good move to make, as all three games are pretty good! Borderlands 2 is often held up as the best of the trilogy, though Borderlands 1 still has a home in my heart. Borderlands 3 is more… controversial among fans, but still features that wonderful gunplay that led thousands of players to fall in love with the sci-fi ppost-apocalyptic series in the first place.

Borderlands 1 went from roughly 644 players on Steam on August 7 to 2,949 on Auguest 11. Borderlands 2 went from 3,925 on August 7 to 7.938 on August 11, and Borderlands 3 shot up from 3,687 on the 7th to 12,379 on the 11th. These aren’t like, world-shattering numbers, but for a trilogy that’s been largely left in the past for years now it’s not too shabby.

If there’s anything to learn here, it’s that there’s clearly something present in the games that’s absent from the shite movie. I can tell you straight up what it is. It’s the action! Gearbox is, and always has been, brilliant at gunplay and explosive gameplay. It’s the glue that keeps the whole thing together. The film, with subpar boring action is left with nothing else but the humour, which has arguably always been wank. I still like Borderlands 1 – jokes included – but by Borderlands 3 I was pretty much done.

Have you been tempted to pop back and try these games out? Let us know below!