Take-Two Interactive declares its confidence Borderland 4 will rebound after technical problems led to a “slight decline” in US sales at launch.
In an interview with IGN ahead of Take-Two's second-quarter financial results (which GTA 6 latest delay confirmed), we asked CEO Strauss Zelnick how Gearbox Software's September looter shooter performed. He admitted that the launch was received “a little softly” due to technical issues that have since become notorious in the Borderlands community, but he remains confident that “it will all come together given enough time.”
Those technical issues led to “some weakness in U.S. sales, but over time we're confident that all of that will be picked up and we'll be in a great place,” Zelnick said.
Take-Two detailed this in their financial report, stating: “The game has received critical acclaim, with many reviewers calling it 'the best Borderlands yet.' The game was enthusiastically welcomed by the series' active community, and in its opening weekend it achieved the highest number of concurrent players on Steam in the franchise's history. Borderlands 4 also dominated YouTube with 30 million views and ranked number one on Twitch during its launch, highlighting the franchise's enduring mass appeal. While we experienced some optimization and performance issues on PC, Gearbox is addressing these issues and releasing updates to improve the gaming experience. We are confident that Borderlands 4 will achieve strong sales throughout its lifespan.”
Borderlands 4 received praise from critics (we gave it a 8/10 in our review) with a release date of September 12, 2025 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, but it also almost immediately faced a wave of criticism from fans. How Steam player count hits record numbers at launchmany experienced technical glitches that dampened months of excitement.
PC users reported performance issues, even on high-end hardware, as players had to lower settings across the board while still struggling to hit their desired framerates. This was a speed bump that Gearbox eventually tried to overcome. ask players to overcome technical difficulties for about 15 minutes after any changes to graphics settings.
PS5 and Xbox fans are faced with a separate issue that Borderlands 4 players have gradually discovered. performance degradation during long gaming sessions. A no FOV sliders tension only increased at launch as Gearbox continued to promise fixes for issues plaguing all platforms.
Updates for Field of view sliders, PC performance issuesAnd more ultimately helped resolve most of the complaints related to the game itself, but those problems were obvious as well Take-Two's controversial terms of service agreementinfluenced the online reception of the fourth main Borderlands game at launch. Borderlands 4 currently has a user rating of 4.5 out of 10 on Metacriticwith him Reviews on Steam also sits at the “Mixed” level across the board.
Despite player dissatisfaction and Zelnik's comments, US video game data company Circana reported that Borderlands 4 became the best-selling premium game of September 2025. and the third most popular game of 2025. This report is based on revenue generated rather than actual sales figures, but this still means that the game managed to achieve the highest launch month dollar sales of any game in the history of the franchise.
Borderlands 4: All Vault Hunter Skill Trees Ranked
Borderlands 4: All Vault Hunter Skill Trees Ranked
Borderlands 4 latest patch balance changes delivered for players on all platforms. DLC content, including seasonal mini-events And additional vault hunterswill be released as post-launch development continues.
As Take-Two, publisher 2K and Gearbox look to catch up, you can read about How Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford reacted to those dissatisfied with the state of Borderlands 4 at launch. You can also see why he encouraged some players to request a refund if they were unhappy with the game.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer for IGN. He is best known for his work on sites such as The Pitch, The Escapist and OnlySP. Be sure to follow him on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
