Take-Two Interactive says it’s assured Borderlands 4 will rebound after technical points led to “a bit little bit of softness” for U.S. gross sales at launch.
In an interview with IGN forward of Take-Two’s second quarter monetary outcomes (which confirmed the newest GTA 6 delay), we requested CEO Strauss Zelnick how Gearbox Software program’s September looter shooter carried out. He admitted the launch was met with “a bit little bit of softness” due to technical points which have since grow to be notorious within the Borderlands group, but he stays assured “it’ll all be made up,” given sufficient time.
These technical points resulted in “a bit little bit of softness out of the gate on the U.S. gross sales aspect, but within the fullness of time we’re satisfied it’ll all be made up, and we’ll be in an ideal place,” Zelnick stated.
Take-Two expanded on that in its monetary report annoncement, saying: “The sport acquired excessive crucial reward, with many reviewers calling it ‘the very best Borderlands but.’ The sequence’ extremely energetic group eagerly welcomed the title, and through its opening weekend, it reached the biggest concurrent participant depend on Steam in franchise historical past. Borderlands 4 additionally dominated YouTube with 30 million views and earned the #1 spot on Twitch throughout its launch, underscoring the franchise’s enduring mass attraction. Whereas we skilled some challenges with optimization and efficiency on PC, Gearbox has been addressing these points and releasing updates to enhance gameplay. We’re assured that Borderlands 4 will obtain sturdy unit gross sales over its lifetime.”
Borderlands 4 acquired reward from critics (we gave it an 8/10 in our evaluate) upon its September 12, 2025, launch date for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Sequence X and S, but it was additionally nearly instantly confronted with a wave of criticism from followers. As Steam participant counts reached document numbers at launch, many have been met with technical hiccups that dampened months of hype.
PC customers reported efficiency points, even on high-end {hardware}, as gamers have been compelled to decrease settings throughout the board whereas nonetheless struggling to hit desired framerates. It was a pace bump that Gearbox ultimately tried to handle by asking gamers to push via the technical difficulties for about quarter-hour following any tweaks to graphics settings.
PS5 and Xbox followers confronted a separate challenge, as Borderlands 4 gamers step by step found worsening efficiency throughout longer play periods. A lack of FOV sliders at launch solely heightened tensions, as Gearbox continued to promise fixes for the problems plaguing all platforms.
Updates for FOV sliders, PC efficiency points, and extra ultimately helped handle most complaints associated to the sport itself, but it was clear these points, in addition to Take-Two’s controversial phrases of service settlement, affected the fourth mainline Borderlands sport’s reception on-line at launch. Borderlands 4 at the moment sits at a 4.5/10 person rating on Metacritic, with its (*4*) additionally sitting at “Blended” throughout the board.
Regardless of dissatisfaction from gamers and Zelnick’s feedback, U.S. online game information firm Circana reported that Borderlands 4 was the top-selling premium sport of September 2025 and the third best-selling sport of 2025 thus far. It’s a report based mostly on income generated as an alternative of precise gross sales numbers, but it nonetheless means the sport managed to generate the best launch month greenback gross sales of every other entry in franchise historical past.
Borderlands 4: All Vault Hunter Talent Bushes Ranked
Borderlands 4: All Vault Hunter Talent Bushes Ranked
The final Borderlands 4 patch delivered stability modifications for gamers throughout all platforms. DLC content material, together with seasonal mini-events and further vault hunters, will likely be launched as post-launch growth continues.
As Take-Two, writer 2K, and Gearbox purpose to make up for misplaced floor, you’ll be able to examine how Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford responded to these sad with the state of Borderlands 4 at launch. You too can see why he urged some gamers to request a refund in the event that they remained unhappy with the expertise.
Michael Cripe is a contract author with IGN. He’s greatest identified for his work at websites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Make sure to give him a observe on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).