Randy Pitchford Makes Borderlands 4 Sales Prediction

Randy Pitchford, the creator of the Borderlands IP, has stated that it will be “easy” for Borderlands 4 to take franchise sales beyond 100 million copies sold. Being a universally acclaimed series, two out of the three mainline games preceding Borderlands 4 have reached eight-figure sales.

Coming in after Gearbox Software’s acquisition by Take-Two Interactive in 2024, Borderlands 4 is the first AAA title for the studio under its new parent. It is also the first mainline release in nearly six years for the highly popular franchise, following 2019’s Borderlands 3, which was a smash hit. In the build-up to launch, Pitchford has touted the new Borderlands game as having “the most open and free” in-game world in the IP’s 16-year-long history. Now, the veteran has further expressed his confidence in the sales potential of the project, which rolls out on September 12.

Pitchford Backs Borderlands 4, Eyes 100 Million Franchise Sales

In an interview with Insider Gaming, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford said that Borderlands 4 will boost franchise sales to over 100 million units sold, without any major difficulty. The total sales of the 2K-published series hovered around 93 million in May, suggesting that the upcoming game needs to move at least 6-7 million copies off the shelves to achieve this feat. Notably, the prediction comes three weeks before the looter shooter game’s much-awaited arrival and sheds light on the developer’s unshakable confidence in the sequel game. Apart from this, Pitchford also revealed that his team was just starting to “dig into” Borderlands 4‘s post-launch work and teased “extremely exciting plans” for the same.

To put things into perspective better, Borderlands 3 has accumulated more than 22 million sales since launch, per a recent dataset. On the other hand, 2009’s Borderlands 2‘s sales are well over 30 million, making it the best-selling game in the franchise. Keeping these figures in mind, it doesn’t seem unlikely for Borderlands 4 to add around 7 million more copies and bring the series’ total to 100 million sales. However, the stylized action-RPG’s journey to reach that milestone may depend on whether it receives a highly positive reception at launch, just like other mainline entries in the series.

When Borderlands 4 finally releases in September, it will mark another major release for 2K this year, after Mafia: The Old Country. Since the new Mafia entry could only garner average review scores, the American gaming giant would hope that Gearbox Software’s game does significantly better. However, only time will tell how the franchise’s enthusiasts feel about the latest chapter in the Borderlands saga.