The Borderlands universe has grown massively, from a first-person looter-shooter video game into an immense sci-fi sandbox. Now, as we’re preparing for Borderlands 4’s big arrival later in 2025, we’ve rounded up the Borderlands games in order.
Despite some ups and downs, the Borderlands games are generally pretty good… as long as you can stand an onslaught of quips and jokes as you blast your way through psychos, alien beasts, robots, and whatnot. Their comedy can be hit-or-miss, and outdated at times, but the humor that does land is quite good.
Regardless, the shooting mechanics, loot system, and RPG progression – alongside a killer aesthetic plus inventive world-building – carry these games and make them unique. If you’re looking for an old-fashioned FPS set in outer space, you can’t really go wrong with the Borderlands series.
With the attractive setting of the wild planet Pandora and a sci-fi universe in which mega-corporations seek control of entire planets to colonize and exploit, it comes as no surprise that more narrative-heavy, graphic adventure spinoffs are a thing too. Those are canon and did something entirely different with the property, so they’re part of this list and worth your time if you’re gunning for a completionist run of the series.
If you’re looking to jump into more legendary sci-fi FPS video game franchises, you should check out our ranked game lists of the Halo, Doom, and Half-Life series. There’s also plenty of hot upcoming space games ahead of us too.
Spoilers ahead for the entire Borderlands series.
Borderlands Games in Chronological Order
This chronological list includes all the mainline Borderlands games released so far plus the ‘Tales’ spinoffs. We’ve left Borderlands Legends as well as the Tiny Tina standalones out; even though we found them pretty fun, they don’t add anything to the plot nor our understanding of Pandora and its people.
- Borderlands
- Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
- Borderlands 2
- Tales from the Borderlands
- Borderlands 3
- New Tales from the Borderlands
- Borderlands 4
1. Borderlands
- Platforms: PC, macOS, PS3/4, Xbox 360/One, Nintendo Switch
- Developer: Gearbox Software
Back in 2009, we had no idea Borderlands would become so massive. The first entry had a pretty simple premise: Imagine an open-world first-person shooter with Diablo-like RPG elements. Turns out that was a winning combination no one had tackled yet, and so developer Gearbox and publisher 2K began printing dollars in no time.
While the gameplay loop and the progression were relatively simple in our first trip to Pandora, it all felt rock-solid and satisfying. Coupled with a comic book-y presentation and plenty of potty-mouthed comedy, Borderlands felt unlike anything else we’d played before. Its success was big enough to fuel the development of several DLC packs which greatly improved the game’s lifespan. The four playable vault hunters – Brick, Lilith, Mordecai, and Roland – each present an entirely different experience, and with the whole thing meant to be playable as both a single-player FPS and a massive co-op adventure, the first Borderlands already packed a lot of value.
As for the story, it isn’t the most engaging of the bunch, but it works quite well as an introduction to Pandora. In this game we meet the main players in the search for The Vault and its rumored riches, and the many factions making life on the planet a maddening chaos. If you’re hungry for more action and plot, those DLCs will keep you occupied for a while, with ‘The Secret Armory of General Knoxx’ and ‘Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution’ being absolute must-plays.
2. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
- Platforms: PC, macOS, Linux, Android, PS3/4, Xbox 360/One, Nintendo Switch
- Developer: Gearbox Software, 2K Australia
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel’s whole deal was expanding on Borderlands 2’s villain, Handsome Jack, and some of the key events that preceded the sequel. If you want the ‘cleanest’ narrative experience possible, you might want to switch the list order of these two games. With that said, we’re well aware most players aren’t into Borderlands for the plot and this is a chronological order list, so yes, Pre-Sequel comes after 1.
In this game, Jack – an employee of the massive Hyperion corporation – leads a group of adventurous vault hunters on a mission to regain control of Helios, a Hyperion base on Pandora’s moon, Elpis. There, they must fight the Lost Legion and find a previously unheard-of hidden Vault.
The Vault hunters this time around – Athena, Wilhelm, Nisha, and Claptrap – added a lot of all-new flavor to the formula, which made up for the lack of major changes after 2’s release. Setting the story on the moon of Elpis also helped sweeten the deal and give Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel a unique vibe. While it’s not a must-play if you’re in a rush, any fan who’s interested in learning more about Handsome Jack (and having new toys and hunters to play with) shouldn’t skip this entry.
3. Borderlands 2
- Platforms: PC, macOS, Linux, Android, PS3/4, PS Vita, Xbox 360/One, Nintendo Switch
- Developer: Gearbox Software
Borderlands 2 is often lauded as the best in the series, and with good reason: It felt next level in every aspect. From the character designs to the weapon variety to the many new Pandoran locations, it represents exactly what a direct sequel should aspire to be. On top of everything, Handsome Jack is amongst the most memorable and twisted villains in modern video games, plus the DLC packs with new stories and loot didn’t disappoint.
The story introduced a new group of Vault hunters that must ally themselves with the resistance group of Pandoran civilians and guerrilla fighters called Crimson Raiders. Why? Because Handsome Jack has made life on Pandora much worse and wants to finally unlock the legendary power of a new Vault.
The four main characters are Maya, Axton, Salvador, and Zer0, with two DLCs adding Krieg the Psycho and Gaige the Mechromancer as well. They made for a really fun roster of playable Vault hunters, and even more than a decade later they all hold up remarkably well. While the plot was essentially a bigger and louder riff on Borderlands 1, Handsome Jack’s major presence and the much bigger variety of wild locales and enemies made the adventure refreshing enough.
4. Tales from the Borderlands
- Platforms: PC, macOS, iOS, Android, PS3/4, Xbox 360/One, Nintendo Switch
- Developer: Telltale Games
Tales from the Borderlands took the series in a rather different direction. In collaboration with Gearbox, Telltale Games applied their trademark episodic point-and-click adventure format to the franchise and created a game with a bigger focus on characters and decision-making. This doesn’t mean it lacked bite or action (quite the opposite), but casual players and long-standing fans didn’t really know what to make of this new experience at first. After all five episodes were out, the reception was very positive; to this day, many argue it’s the best Borderlands story we’ve gotten so far.
The story is set “some time” after the events of Borderlands 2 and deals with the fallout of Handsome Jack’s death and the discovery of more Vaults which are scattered across the galaxy. It’s a new gold rush of sorts out there for both the corporations and the Vault hunters. Here we follow Rhys, a Hyperion employee, and Fiona, a con-artist, cross paths as they both try to survive and walk away from Pandoran chaos with something in their pockets.
5. Borderlands 3
- Platforms: PC, macOS, PS4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S, Nintendo Switch
- Developer: Gearbox Software
Borderlands 3 took its sweet time to fully come together and reveal itself. For the most part, it was worth the wait. The generational leap allowed the gameplay and the open-world structure to truly evolve, and a surprisingly big part of the tried-and-tested formula remained traditional in the face of more modern FPS-RPGs like Destiny.
The new Vault hunters were Amara, FL4K, Zane, and Moze, and they were tasked with taking down a pair of mad siren twins named Troy and Tyreen, who are among the most criticized bad guys in recent gaming history because of the writing surrounding them.
Another negative for many casual players and critics was the overreliance on trite humor that hadn’t evolved much since the early 2010s. Putting those wobblier elements aside, Borderlands 3 actually took some big swings and set a new path for the franchise that seems to be paying off in the fourquel.
6. New Tales from the Borderlands
- Platforms: PC, PS4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S, Nintendo Switch
- Developer: Gearbox Studio Québec
New Tales from the Borderlands marked the lowest point for the long-running series… well, until the Borderlands movie came out that is. Even though Telltale died and then returned between graphic adventure installments, 2K and Gearbox decided to take the matter of “Tales from the Borderlands never getting a follow-up” into their own hands. The result was far from ideal.
While the playable formula saw a tangible evolution outside of the ‘branching narrative’ sections, the three new protagonists (Anu, Octavio, and Fran) failed to impress fans. This, in combination with its retread of old ideas – a corporation chasing the protagonists because of some ancient relics – wasn’t a solid hook for the more casual crowd.
Many argue to this day it wasn’t a bad game per se. Instead, it was a victim of ‘too little too late’ and Tales’ cast getting little to no resolution despite cameos in Borderlands 3. This one is the last game on the timeline until Borderlands 4 hits later this year.
7. Borderlands 4
- Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2
- Developer: Gearbox Software
Borderlands 3 ended with a big cliffhanger: Lilith sacrificing herself to save Pandora from certain destruction by its moon, Elpis. It turns out that the moon was a literal key that could unlock the Great Vault that is Pandora itself. The second huge twist was Elpis just disappearing… and now we know it was teleported to an entirely different star system.
In Borderlands 4, we’ll get to journey to and cause mayhem on Kairos, a previously unseen planet suffering under the iron fist of The Timekeeper, “a ruthless dictator.” Safe to say, Elpis almost magically crashing into the planet causes a stir, and so here comes a new team of Vault hunters to save the day and maybe even get rich in the process. We’ll learn more about the story before the game launches on September 12, 2025.
Borderlands games in release order
Borderlands has become a sizable video game franchise over the course of more than 15 years, especially if we include all its spinoffs. Check out the full list of Borderlands games (minus ports and re-releases) below and prepare for a long stay on Pandora if you’re planning on playing through all the games released so far:
- Borderlands (2009)
- Borderlands 2 (2012)
- Borderlands Legends (2012)
- Borderlands 2: Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep (2013)
- Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (2014)
- Tales from the Borderlands (2014)
- Borderlands 3 (2019)
- Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands (2022)
- New Tales from the Borderlands (2022)
- Borderlands 4 (2025)
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