All Borderlands games in order, by release date and chronologically

By Jesse Lennox Published May 4, 2025

When it comes to FPS games, it is always a toss-up as to whether or not the story even matters. On one hand, you can play the Call of Duty games in order but only a few games actually link up with one another. Meanwhile, playing the Halo games in order is almost required to understand what’s going on. The Borderlands franchise lands somewhere in the middle, though most people probably assume the story doesn’t play a big factor since it is more focused on being comedic than telling a deep story. However, there is a ton of lore to this universe and each game, including the spinoffs, all connect leading up to Borderlands 4. Don’t let the number 4 fool you, though, because there are more than twice as many games in the franchise. We’ve been playing the franchise since it began so we will show you exactly how to play the entire Borderlands franchise in order, both in release order and chronologically.

Since the series began in 2009, there have been 9 games in the Borderlands universe, with Borderlands 4 set to be number 10. This includes the mainline four games and plenty of spin-offs. Without counting any rereleases, this is the order the games came out in from oldest to newest. This is the way we suggest playing the series if you want to feel the quality and mechanics improve and expand over time.

Playing the Borderlands games in chronological order isn’t quite as easy as some other series. This is mainly due to The Pre-Sequel messing things up jumping between two different points in the timeline across the game. We’ll note the two places that the game fits in the timeline, but since it is unrealistic to just play slices of this game, you’re best off playing it in full the first time we list it. You are by no means required to play them all to enjoy the series, but they are all fun and there are payoffs for those who do see it all.

Also, Borderlands Legends isn’t included here since it has been delisted and is no longer playable.

While unofficial, we will rely on the Fandom timeline for counting years in the Borderland universe. This way of marking time places Borderlands 4 as the present day and all prior events as X years ago (Y.A)