Borderlands 4’s Steam user review average has now risen to “mixed.” Initial performance tests of Borderlands 4 reveal that while the game is not facing a catastrophic launch, players should anticipate several patches in the upcoming days and weeks. For those with older PCs, utilizing upscaling technologies like DLSS may become necessary to enhance gameplay.
Performance Concerns Surface
Despite its critical acclaim from various pre-release reviews, which notably did not include PC Gamer, the reception on Steam tells a different story. The game currently holds a “mostly negative” rating, primarily due to performance issues. A significant number of users have reported low frame rates and persistent stuttering, even when playing on high-end hardware with reduced graphical settings. Complaints regarding frequent crashes have also become a common theme among player feedback.
Michael Hoglund from Windows Central echoed these sentiments, noting that the enjoyable gunplay in Borderlands 4 was often marred by “intermittent zone loading” and noticeable frame rate drops. Our own hardware tester, Nick Evanson, experienced similar challenges during his initial testing. However, he did observe some improvement following a 2.7GB post-launch patch, which appears to be the day-one update confirmed by Randy Pitchford prior to launch. Notably, there has been no mention of a separate hotfix on the Borderlands 4 Steam page as of yet.
Interestingly, even some of the positive reviews have pointed out performance drawbacks. One review stated, “Game is good but the performance is not; frame generation and DLSS are almost mandatory if you do not have an RTX 5090.”
Expectations and Player Engagement
Earlier this week, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford hinted at potential performance concerns, advising gamers to maintain “realistic” expectations, particularly for those using older hardware. He remarked, “This is a big, open AAA game, and lower-end and older hardware may not perform as well as higher-end, modern PCs.” While this advice is prudent, it also seemed to foreshadow the challenges that have since emerged.
As of now, there has been no official response from Gearbox regarding the performance issues or plans for addressing them. Given that Borderlands 4 just launched a few hours ago, it is reasonable to expect that the company will provide updates soon. Despite the less-than-stellar user ratings, the game’s concurrent player count is impressive, with SteamDB reporting over 192,000 players currently engaged. This figure surpasses the player counts of previous titles in the series, particularly considering that Borderlands 3 was initially an Epic Games Store exclusive. Player numbers are likely to increase even further as the weekend approaches.
