How much revenue did Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel make?

$26.7M–$71.7M after Steam's roughly 30% cut, derived from the copies estimate and its price.

How many copies did Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel sell?

Q: How many copies did Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel sell?

2.4M to 3.9M copies, based on its 43k Steam reviews. This is a labeled estimate from the review count, not exact sales.

Estimated copies sold: ≈ 2.4M–3.9M; $26.7M–$71.7M after Steam's cut $48.5M–$110.3M before Steam's cut; from 43k reviews (Mostly Positive)

Copies are estimated from the public review count, adjusted for release year, and cross-checked against SteamSpy's own estimate.

Did the prediction match what actually happened?

We hid Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and predicted how it would do from its 8 similar games. Every figure here, including Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel's, is estimated from Steam reviews.

Copies, estimated from reviews

typical (middle half) 2.9M–25.3M

best case 56.0M (PAYDAY 2)

Games like Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

A typical game among these

≈ 2.9M–25.3M copies

≈ $22.0M–$190.6M after Steam's cut

from ~134k reviews

Only the top fifth of 2019's Steam releases earned $34k or more before Steam's cut, so plan for that or less.

All 8 of the similar games are hits.

Best case: PAYDAY 2 at ≈ 42.7M–69.3M copies, ≈ $117.2M–$315.1M after Steam's cut.

What their first month looked like

About half the games that made it here had over 29k reviews in their first month; the range was 24k to 63k.

The genre you'd be entering

These games: The similar games share Looter Shooter (8 of 8) and Co-op (7 of 8).
The winners: Winners here lead with Co-op + FPS, priced around $10.
When they shipped: The similar games span 2012 to 2023, and none of them shipped in the last two years.

How these numbers were worked out

A hit here: 1,000+ reviews, roughly $150k+ before Steam's cut (a standard indie benchmark).

Copies come from each game's reviews times a sales-per-review rate that falls with release age, from about 31 for the most recent game here to about 79 for the oldest, then widened into a range; revenue rides on that estimate times price. Source: GameDiscoverCo (2020) and VG Insights (2021).

Similar games

Game	Est. copies	Est. revenue	Price	Reviews	Tags
PAYDAY 2 2013	Est. copies ≈ 42.7M–69.3M 5.0x vs typical SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue $117.2M–$315.1M after Steam's cut $213.1M–$484.7M before Steam's cut	$9.99	675k reviews Very Positive	Co-opAction
Destiny 2 2019	Est. copies ≈ 19.1M–31.0M 4.9x vs typical SteamSpy 20M–50M	Est. revenue Free	Free	663k reviews Mostly Positive	Free to PlayOpen World
Borderlands 2 2012	Est. copies ≈ 19.8M–32.1M 2.3x vs typical SteamSpy 10M–20M	Est. revenue $217.3M–$584.2M after Steam's cut $395.1M–$898.8M before Steam's cut	$39.99	313k reviews Very Positive	LootShooter
Borderlands Game of the Year 2023	Est. copies ≈ 791k–1.3M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $6.5M–$17.5M after Steam's cut $11.9M–$27.0M before Steam's cut	$29.99	32k reviews Very Positive	Looter ShooterFPS
Gunfire Reborn 2021	Est. copies ≈ 2.6M–4.2M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $14.2M–$38.1M after Steam's cut $25.7M–$58.5M before Steam's cut	$19.99	104k reviews Very Positive	Rogue-lite FPS
Borderlands 3 2020	Est. copies ≈ 4.1M–6.6M SteamSpy 2M–5M	Est. revenue $89.5M–$240.7M after Steam's cut $162.8M–$370.4M before Steam's cut	$79.99	164k reviews Very Positive	RPGLooter Shooter
Tom Clancy’s The Division™ 2016	Est. copies ≈ 4.0M–6.6M SteamSpy 5M–10M	Est. revenue $33.2M–$89.4M after Steam's cut $60.5M–$137.5M before Steam's cut	$29.99	97k reviews Mostly Positive	Open WorldLooter Shooter
Shadow Warrior 2 2016	Est. copies ≈ 1.2M–1.9M SteamSpy 1M–2M	Est. revenue $9.7M–$26.1M after Steam's cut $17.6M–$40.1M before Steam's cut	$29.99	28k reviews Very Positive	ActionGore