Surprisingly quickly after its launch, Borderlands 4 is now available on Steam Sale – and with a decent discount at that.
Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford promised back in the summer that players would have to wait a very long time for a significant discount on Borderlands 4. However, just one month after its release on September 12, 2025, the reality on Steam looks quite different: The new loot shooter is already available with a first discount on Steam .
“Will take even longer”
The original discussion arose in June 2025, when its predecessor, Borderlands 3, was offered at a massive 95 percent discount during the Steam Summer Sale after five years.
Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford took this as an opportunity to explain on X (formerly Twitter) that we should expect an even longer wait for similar offers for Borderlands 4. His exact words were:
“And to set expectations, it will be even longer before this kind of thing happens in the next cycle with Borderlands 4.”
Sales like this and Borderlands 3 showing up on console subscription programs took over 5 years from the game’s launch to happen. Take advantage when it’s here! And to set expectations, it will be even longer before this kind of thing happens in the next cycle with Borderlands 4. https://t.co/5Jg9j2ILza
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) June 26, 2025
This statement naturally gave many players the impression that the price of the latest installment would remain stable for a long time.
So it came as quite a surprise that Borderlands 4 went on sale on Steam just a few weeks after its release.
Currently, all three PC versions of the game are available at a 20 percent discount. There is no comparable discount for console players on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S yet.
Possible reasons for the quick sale
We can only speculate about the reasons behind the rapid price reduction: One factor could be the mixed reception of the game on PC. As is well known, the shooter suffers from massive technical problems, in particular severe stuttering and unstable performance, which led to “mostly negative” user reviews on Steam shortly after launch.
A price reduction could be a way to attract new players and boost sales figures despite the criticism. Declining player numbers on Steam may also have played a role in the decision—of the more than 300,000 concurrent players at launch, only five to ten percent remain today, depending on the time of day.
Or perhaps Pitchford’s statement simply needs to be read differently: his prediction may have referred explicitly to “such offers,” i.e., massive price drops in the range of 95 percent, as seen with Borderlands 3.
A 20 percent discount does not fall into this category, but it is still a significant price reduction for a big AAA name – especially just 34 days after release.
