Borderlands 4 Crosses 2.5 Million Players Despite Early PC Issues

Borderlands 4 has drawn in more than 2.5 million players since its launch on September 12, marking a strong start for Gearbox Software and publisher Take-Two Interactive. The milestone comes despite the game’s rocky reception among PC players during its opening weeks.

Borderlands 4 (Credit: Gearbox Software)

How Have Sales Performed So Far?

According to data from Alinea Analytics, shared with GamesIndustry.biz, Borderlands 4 has generated more than $150 million in revenue so far.

On Steam, the looter-shooter has sold over 1.3 million copies, equaling around $80 million in revenue, while console versions have sold more than one million units combined.

Its audience is heavily concentrated in the United States, which accounts for more than half of the player base on both Steam and PlayStation. Other major markets include China, Germany, the UK, France, and Canada.

Player engagement has also shown just how much the series’ legacy matters. On Steam, 59% of Borderlands 4 players previously played Borderlands 2, while 51% had played Borderlands 3.

PlayStation tells a different story: 81% of players there had previously played Borderlands 3, boosted by its inclusion on PS Plus.

Why Are PC Players Frustrated?

While sales numbers have been encouraging, the launch hasn’t been smooth. Performance issues on PC quickly dominated headlines, with players citing stutter, crashes, and inconsistent framerates.

Digital Foundry advised against using the game’s “Badass” graphics preset due to instability, while IGN highlighted issues on consoles as well, including a possible memory leak on the PS5 Pro that worsened performance the longer the game ran.

These problems left Borderlands 4 with a “Mixed” review rating on Steam, as negative reviews piled up around optimisation.

Between all this, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford became a lightning rod for frustration. On X/Twitter, he told upset players to request refunds on Steam, quipped that critics unhappy with the game’s tech should “code [their] own engine,” and defended the title as a “premium game made for premium gamers.”

Pitchford also brushed off concerns about server strain by saying it would have been “impossible” for launch-day numbers to overwhelm the system, and suggested console players dealing with slowdown could simply quit and restart the game.

Gearbox’s First Major Patch

On September 18, Gearbox issued a statement calling PC optimisation its “top priority” and rolled out a new patch aimed at improving stability. The developer also confirmed that a field of view (FOV) slider for consoles is in testing.

Gearbox additionally posted a Borderlands 4 Nvidia Optimization guide on Steam, encouraging players to tweak settings using the Nvidia app.

The studio also advised players to keep playing for at least 15 minutes after changing graphics settings to allow shaders to recompile.

Despite the backlash, Alinea Analytics predicts the conversation will shift as updates improve performance, noting that “initial performance issues” dominated headlines but may fade with time.