Take-Two Interactive says it is confident Borderlands 4 will rebound after technical issues led to “a little bit of softness” for U.S. sales at launch.
In an interview with IGN ahead of Take-Two's second quarter financial results (which confirmed the latest GTA 6 delay), we asked CEO Strauss Zelnick how Gearbox Software’s September looter shooter performed. He admitted the launch was met with “a little bit of softness” due to technical issues that have since become infamous in the Borderlands community, but he remains confident “it’ll all be made up,” given enough time.
Those technical issues resulted in "a little bit of softness out of the gate on the U.S. sales side, but in the fullness of time we’re convinced it’ll all be made up, and we’ll be in a great place," Zelnick said.
Take-Two expanded on that in its financial report annoncement, saying: "The game received high critical praise, with many reviewers calling it 'the best Borderlands yet.' The series’ highly active community eagerly welcomed the title, and during its opening weekend, it reached the largest concurrent player count on Steam in franchise history. Borderlands 4 also dominated YouTube with 30 million views and earned the #1 spot on Twitch during its launch, underscoring the franchise’s enduring mass appeal. While we experienced some challenges with optimization and performance on PC, Gearbox has been addressing these issues and releasing updates to improve gameplay. We are confident that Borderlands 4 will achieve strong unit sales over its lifetime."
Borderlands 4 received praise from critics (we gave it an 8/10 in our review) upon its September 12, 2025, release date for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S, but it was also almost immediately faced with a wave of criticism from fans. As Steam player counts reached record numbers at launch, many were met with technical hiccups that dampened months of hype.
PC users reported performance issues, even on high-end hardware, as players were forced to lower settings across the board while still struggling to hit desired framerates. It was a speed bump that Gearbox eventually attempted to address by asking players to push through the technical difficulties for about 15 minutes following any tweaks to graphics settings.
PS5 and Xbox fans faced a separate issue, as Borderlands 4 players gradually discovered worsening performance during longer play sessions. A lack of FOV sliders at launch only heightened tensions, as Gearbox continued to promise fixes for the issues plaguing all platforms.
Updates for FOV sliders, PC performance issues, and more eventually helped address most complaints related to the game itself, but it was clear these issues, as well as Take-Two’s controversial terms of service agreement, affected the fourth mainline Borderlands game’s reception online at launch. Borderlands 4 currently sits at a 4.5/10 user score on Metacritic, with its Steam reviews also sitting at “Mixed” across the board.
Despite dissatisfaction from players and Zelnick's comments, U.S. video game data company Circana reported that Borderlands 4 was the top-selling premium game of September 2025 and the third best-selling game of 2025 so far. It’s a report based on revenue generated instead of actual sales numbers, but it still means the game managed to generate the highest launch month dollar sales of any other entry in franchise history.
The last Borderlands 4 patch delivered balance changes for players across all platforms. DLC content, including seasonal mini-events and additional vault hunters, will be released as post-launch development continues.
As Take-Two, publisher 2K, and Gearbox aim to make up for lost ground, you can read about how Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford responded to those unhappy with the state of Borderlands 4 at launch. You can also see why he urged some players to request a refund if they remained unsatisfied with the experience.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
