Blender skyrocketed in popularity in last 5 years. I just went through local gamedev job openings site (skillshot.pl) and over half of 3D Artist postings mention Blender.
This tells me you may not have been keeping as close tabs on industry practices. I can tell you personally, this has been rapidly changing over the past few years, and it's taken a lot of people by surprise. I can't say it's supplanted Maya yet by any means, but that software's quickly being seen as old-hat by each new wave of gamedevs. It's fascinating to see.