Battleborn Day, the fan-led event aimed at drumming up more players for Gearbox’s troubled hero shooter, managed to drastically increase the number of players in the game over the November 12 weekend, but the numbers were still low and the spike didn’t last.
The spike in concurrent users during the special event, during which veteran players were on hand to help new players along, looks impressive in chart form, but not so much when you look at the numbers. Between the player push and Gearbox’s own special in-game bonuses, average concurrents spiked from the recent 400 average to as much as 709, but that’s not a lot of players for a team-based co-op and competitive game.
Browsing the Battleborn Reddit, many players reported having an easier time getting into a game over the weekend across PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but it’s back to the sad status quo now that the bonuses are gone.
It might be a good time for 2K to make the experience and reward bonuses implemented for the event the baseline. Or just go free-to-play already.