When does Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel get good?

Give it 20 hours. In the first 2 hours 1 in 3 reviews are negative (37%); after 35h it's 1 in 7 (15%). Fully opens up by hour 35.

How many players finish Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel?

40% of players who start reach the ending.

All games

ActionRPG

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

Oct 13, 2014 Steam: Mostly Positive

Give it 20 hours

Gets good by 20h then rated almost like by veterans

Fully opens up by 35h rated like by long-time players

Reach the ending 40% of players who started

Started playing 82% of owners

Steam reviews 79% positive of 43,338

What the data shows

In the first 2 hours 1 in 3 reviews are negative (37%); after 35h it's 1 in 7 (15%).
Fully opens up by hour 35.
40% of players who start reach the ending.
The biggest drop-off is between “Invaders Must Die” and “Welcome To The Rock” (Completed the mission ''Marooned''): from 100% to 88% of starters.
82% of owners got the first achievement.

When it gets good

Share of positive reviews by how many hours the reviewer had played when writing the review.

before it gets good opening up fully opened up

Based on all 43,519 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 295 reviews: 22.2h for positive, 10.3h for negative. Almost every game is rated lower in the first 2–3 hours: that window includes refunds and quick first impressions. What matters is how deep the dip is and how fast the game recovers.

Where players quit

Share of players who started the game and reached each story milestone. 100% is the most common achievement (82.2% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.

Started playing 100%
Invaders Must Die Completed the mission ''Lost Legion Invasion''. 100%
Welcome To The Rock Completed the mission ''Marooned''. Most players quit here 88% −12
Dejamminated Completed the mission ''Systems Jammed''. 82% −6
I Shot The Meriff Completed the mission ''A New Direction''. 72% −10
Drakensburg, Schmakensburg Completed the mission ''Intelligences Of The Artificial Persuasion''. 61% −11
Who Constructs The Constructor? Completed the mission ''Let's Build A Robot Army''. 54% −7
Helios Rising Completed the mission ''Home Sweet Home''. 52% −2
Brain Drain Completed the mission ''Science And Violence''. 51% −1
The Guts Of Helios Completed the mission ''Watch Your Step''. 48% −3
A House Divided Completed the mission ''Eye To Eye''. 46% −2
Vault Hunter Superior Defeated the Opha Superior. 41% −5
Multi Face-eted Defeated the Empyrean Sentinel. 40% −1

story milestone ending biggest drop-off

Story milestones were labeled by AI from achievement names and descriptions; mistakes are possible.

All achievements (63)

story milestone ending side

Invaders Must Die Completed the mission ''Lost Legion Invasion''. 100%
Space Rookie Reached level 5. 95%
Welcome To The Rock Completed the mission ''Marooned''. 88%
Dejamminated Completed the mission ''Systems Jammed''. 82%
High Fashion Unlocked 10 Customization Items. 82%
Lunar Lieutenant Reached level 10. 73%
I Shot The Meriff Completed the mission ''A New Direction''. 72%
Drakensburg, Schmakensburg Completed the mission ''Intelligences Of The Artificial Persuasion''. 61%
Who Constructs The Constructor? Completed the mission ''Let's Build A Robot Army''. 54%
Grind 'n' Bear It Used the Grinder to create an item. 53%
Helios Rising Completed the mission ''Home Sweet Home''. 52%
Brain Drain Completed the mission ''Science And Violence''. 51%
The Guts Of Helios Completed the mission ''Watch Your Step''. 48%
Super Secret Stash Opened Zarpedon's Chest. 47%
A House Divided Completed the mission ''Eye To Eye''. 46%
Moon Master Reached level 25. 43%
Vault Hunter Superior Defeated the Opha Superior. 41%
Multi Face-eted Defeated the Empyrean Sentinel. 40%
Side Quest Student Completed 30 side missions. 33%
The Duelist Won a duel. 33%
Modern Fart Completed the mission ''To Arms''. 28%
Rocketeer Launched four rockets From Elpis. 23%
Mouth To Mouth Revived 10 players with Oxygen. 22%
Digitize Me! Digitized into Claptrap's Brain. 21%
Once More With Feeling Completed the mission ''Return of Captain Chef''. 21%
Do Shoot the Messenger Delivered Zarpedon's message. 20%
That Tasted Purple! Had purple-rated gear or better equipped in every slot. 20%
Expensive Taste Used the Grinder to create a Legendary item. 19%
Pancake Parlor Pancaked an enemy in the Stingray. 19%
Air Supremacy Killed 100 enemies with Wolf. 18%
Beam Me Up Discovered all named locations aboard the Helios Space Station. 17%
The Bigger They Are Defeated the Invincible Empyrean Sentinel. 17%
Smash and Not Grab Destroyed the Tassiter Proxy. 16%
Totally Recalled Successfully recovered the Override Key. 15%
Elementalist Had an enemy frozen, corroded, ignited, and electrocuted at the same time. 15%
Shadow Play Gave the H-Source to Jack. 15%
Shadow of Your Former Self Defeated 5H4D0W-TP. 14%
Space Lord Reached level 50. 11%
No, I'm Athena! Killed 100 enemies with the Aspis. 11%
Executioner Killed 10 enemies in a single activation of Showdown. 11%
Guardian Guardian Saved the Guardians from the Scav Poachers. 10%
I Come From The Land Up Over Discovered all named locations in Serenity's Waste, Triton Flats and Stanton's Liver. 9.2%
Eridian Explorer Discovered all named locations in Outlands Canyon, Outlands Spur and Vorago Solitude. 9.0%
The Gun In The Stone Pulled Excalibastard from the stone. 8.4%
Moon Mission Meister Completed all of the side missions. 8.2%
360 No Scope While airborne, spun 360 degrees then got a kill with a Sniper Rifle without using the scope. 8.0%
It's Raining Cats and Hotdogs Completed a round using the Mutator. 7.9%
Smash the System Completed all 5 rounds of The Holodome. 7.4%
Lunar Looter Looted 10 Moonstone Chests. 6.3%
Moxxi's Sampler Tried all the Moxxtails in the Up Over Bar in Concordia. 6.0%
Stronger! Smarter! Completed the Badass Round of The Holodome. 6.0%
Who Needs Air? Suffocated for 5 continuous minutes without dying. 5.7%
Collateral Damage Had a Lost Legion Eternal kill 3 of his friends. 5.2%
Wheely Fast Outran the Wheel in the Temple of Boom. 5.0%
I Welcome Your Attack, Fool Completed the Badass Round without going into Fight For Your Life. 4.4%
Cosmic Completionist Discovered all named locations. 4.3%
Sociopathic Networker Talked to all of Claptrap's Holographic Projections. 3.9%
Who You Gonna Call? Completed the Sub-Level 13 missions with 3 other players. 3.4%
Ice To Meet You Shattered 3 frozen enemies with a single slam attack. 3.4%
That Helped, Right? Experienced all Vault Hunter Modes using VaultHunter.EXE. 2.8%
No Photographs, Please! Killed 10 SpyBugs before they took your photo. 2.7%
The Gift that Keeps on Giving Experienced all 9 Game Modes and all 9 Modifiers of the Mutator. 2.4%
Challenger Completed level 1 of all challenges with a single character. 2.3%

Steam page Updated: 2026-10-18.