Borderlands 4 debuted with notable commercial traction, setting a franchise record on Steam by surpassing 100K simultaneous PC players at launch, later peaking at nearly 300K during its first weekend. Despite moving 2 million copies globally in its initial week and leading September 2025’s U.S. sales rankings, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick described its financial performance as “below projections” during a recent earnings call.

Speaking to The Game Business following Grand Theft Auto VI’s delay announcement, Zelnick acknowledged the title’s critical praise but emphasized technical struggles: “Player reception has been overwhelmingly positive, though early Steam adoption faced hurdles.” He specifically highlighted persistent PC optimization issues and launch-day glitches as factors impacting sales momentum.

Gearbox faced widespread criticism after CEO Randy Pitchford defended the PC port’s rocky performance, controversially stating it was “running efficiently” on social media amidst user complaints about framerate drops and crashes. This contrasted with Zelnick’s tempered acknowledgment that “short-term sales haven’t met internal forecasts, but we remain confident in its long-term viability post-updates.”

Recent updates have reportedly stabilized performance, with one patch boosting framerates by over 20% on mid-tier hardware. Gearbox continues refining the experience, aligning with Zelnick’s optimism about the title’s recovery.

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