Borderlands 4 launches its first free Bounty Pack… but player numbers don’t budge

Gearbox released the Bounty Pack for free to all, but the game saw no uptick in activity.

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Borderlands 4 is going through a peculiar phase. Although 2025 has been a strong year in sales and the game debuted with over 300,000 simultaneous players, its daily activity has been decreasing week by week. To try to stop this decline, Gearbox decided to make the first Bounty Pack completely free. The move seemed intended to regain attention just before December.

However, the data tells a different story: the day the pack was released, November 20, did not produce any visible increase in the number of players. The following weekend was practically identical to the previous one, even despite being content that was originally paid and part of the annual roadmap.

The Bounty Pack fails to boost Borderlands 4’s numbers

The Bounty Pack included a Christmas-themed story, a new boss, a Vault Card with 24 cosmetics and legendary equipment with reroll… but the reception was lukewarm. A “it’s okay” that doesn’t justify the idea of reinstalling the game, especially at a time when ARC Raiders, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and other releases are taking up all the attention.

• Gearbox’s move seems to respond to two fronts: a heavily criticized Halloween event and a gradual decline in the active community. Even so, not even making paid content free has attracted new players, which reinforces the feeling that Borderlands 4 needs major content to reactivate interest.

The studio is hoping that December will mark a turning point with the first “Invincible”, a final boss designed as an end-game challenge, and the arrival of a new level of difficulty. Later, in 2026, another Bounty Pack will arrive, and most importantly, the large expansion Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned, with a new Vault Hunter: the biggest bet to bring back those who have already completed the campaign.

Borderlands 4 may have sold more than ever for the saga, but its long-term success will depend on whether those players decide to return when its most ambitious content lands.