Borderlands 4 DLC Character and Free-to-Play Weekend Attract Resurgence on Steam

Borderlands 4 is climbing Steam charts as players fall head over heels for its new DLC character – a Vault Hunter named Loveless the Hacker.

Gearbox Software’s latest Borderlands game struggled in the months following its September 2025 launch. Despite delivering the looter shooter series’ biggest launch ever, technical issues across PC and console, as well as Gearbox’s handling of the situation, were immediately followed by a steep decline in players, with SteamDB recording numbers that have struggled to break 10,000 concurrent users since January of this year.

Borderlands 4 might have launched to generally favorable reviews (IGN gave it an 8/10), but it’s struggled to recapture player interest – until now. Friday, September 10, saw the release of Loveless the Hacker, a DLC character with high-end cybernetics. She’s only a small part of a grander Story Pack 2 release, and she seems to be giving the game a second wind.

“Two minds exist inside Loveless, forming a synchronized set of lethal skills that strike as one,” a description for Loveless says. “Through a symbiotic melding of the biological and digital, this ex-Anshin hacker-turned-assassin has become a superior lifeform. Equipped with the highest-end cybernetics, Loveless shares her psyche with a digital virus of her own creation, which can digistruct into a physical Wyrm form to act as a deadly extension of her shared, perfection-seeking will.”

At the time of this story’s publication, Borderlands 4 is enjoying around 26,000 concurrent players on Steam alone. That’s the most it’s had since November 2025, and far higher than the 17,000-player peak it reached with the launch of Story Pack 1 in March. The base game has also now managed to round out the Top 5 sellers on Steam in the U.S., and it’s even come in at nine in the Top 10 global list.

Player counts also appear to be climbing even further, with those in its Steam reviews section specifically calling attention to Loveless as the reason they’ve decided to return to the planet Kairos. Many refer to voice acting from actress Carin Gilfry as a specific positive, but you can probably guess what a lot of the others had to say.

“Bought the game solely because of Loveless,” one review said. “This is how you market.”

Bro she’s so bad

Loveless? But girl I LOVE YOU pic.twitter.com/ASqXkrZhhX

— Ccrypto (@Ccrypto5) September 3, 2026

“Actually a nice character,” a popular review said. “Looks good, good design, is insanely OP (can solo bosses without any help). But her alternate heads are a bit — meh. And she costs $9.99. The VA put some effort into it though. Overall – I think she fits.”

“Letting me buy the Vault Hunter without having to by the DLC story pack is the correct call,” another fan said, referencing Loveless’ $10 asking price compared to the recently released Story Pack 2 expansion. “Glad they learned. Also, step on me Mommy.”

There are a number of factors contributing to Borderlands 4’s boost in players on Steam, specifically. In addition to Loveless’ status as a popular addition, Story Pack 2: FL4K and the Last Resort has also helped. There’s also the fact that Gearbox is in the middle of a 50% off sale, bringing its price to $34.99 in the midst of a free-to-play weekend that runs until September 14.

It’s unclear if the numbers will stick, but it seems to be a winning weekend for Borderlands 4 nonetheless. For more, you can read about what parent company Take-Two had to say about Gearbox’s latest as it heads into its second year on the market. You can also read about how Saber took a dig at Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford.