14 DAY TRIAL // The Borderlands franchise is pretty big, and publisher Take Two has revealed the full extent of its popularity, stating that it has sold nearly 23 million units worldwide, since its inception in 2009.
The first Borderlands came out back in 2009, followed by Borderlands 2 in 2012 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel in 2014, and they all have apparently sold a lot.
Granted, not all the sales have been at full retail price, but it's still an impressive feat, nonetheless. Other notable performers for Take Two are Sid Meier's Civilization series, which has just passed the 29 million sales mark, and the Grand Theft Auto franchise, which is just incredibly popular with the crowds.
Grand Theft Auto V alone has sold over 45 million copies worldwide, and its PC edition isn't even out yet.
The information comes from Take Two's Q3 earnings call, transcribed by SeekingAlpha, during which Chief Executive Officer Strauss Zelnick made the reveal.
Developer Gearbox Software intends to release Borderlands: The Handsome Collection on March 24, bringing the highly acclaimed series to current-generation platforms for the first time, and likely giving a significant boost to the sales number.
Borderlands: The Handsome Collection includes Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, as well as a ton of downloadable content, including extra playable characters.
The future holds many exciting developments
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was criticized for not introducing anything exciting to the series, and in spite of the fact that it added low gravity and some new elemental weapons to the formula, as well as a playable Claptrap, many gamers confessed losing interest in it only a few hours in.
The developer is currently working on the next installment in the series, an Xbox One and PlayStation 4 exclusive it would seem, but for the time being, it's unclear whether it's going to be Borderlands 3 or something a little different.
Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford talked about the prospect of creating Borderlands 3 last year, stating that it would be an intimidating endeavor, due to the extremely high expectations of everyone involved.
Borderlands 2 was already a very polished and exciting experience, with a ton of humor, immense weapon variety and bucketloads of fun, so topping that in a way that brings something truly new (and surprising) to the franchise would be a very impressive accomplishment.
