Borderlands 4 Review

Two of you on one console, four of you online, and a free account you have to make first

Short verdict:if you have a PS5 or an Xbox Series X|S and a friend who sits next to you, Borderlands 4 is the best current looter-shooter to buy - it is the rare big-budget game that still divides the screen, and 2K's own FAQ says two split-screen duos can join into one party of four, which almost nothing else does. If you are all on PC, there is no split-screen at all, and if the console in your house is a Nintendo Switch 2 you cannot buy it yet.

Borderlands 4 is a co-op looter-shooter from Gearbox and 2K. You and up to three others shoot through a planet collecting randomized guns, each of you playing one of four characters with their own ability tree. If you have played a Borderlands game you know the shape of this one; what changes between entries, and what actually decides your purchase, is the co-op plumbing. So this review is about the plumbing.

Is Borderlands 4 split-screen? Yes - two players, console only

The FAQ is specific, and it is worth quoting rather than paraphrasing: “2-player splitscreen couch co-op on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S”. Three things follow from that sentence.

The local cap is two, not four. A group of four in one room cannot all share one screen in this game. If that is your situation, the honest answer is a different purchase - the games that genuinely seat four on one screen is the list, and Borderlands 3 is on it for the reason in the next section.

PC is excluded. The FAQ names PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S and does not name PC. If your group plays on computers, two of you cannot share a monitor here; you need two copies and two machines. Split-screen on PC covers why this is normal rather than an oversight, and what the workarounds are.

The good part: split-screen and online stack, and that is genuinely unusual. 2K's splitscreen material describes two local players joining up with another pair online to make a full four-player party. That means two couples in two houses can play one campaign together using two copies instead of four - the cheapest four-player arrangement in any current looter-shooter, and the thing we would actually plan a purchase around.

Is Borderlands 4 cross platform? Yes, with an account step

The FAQ says players who link their free SHiFT accountto Borderlands 4 “will be able to play online multiplayer across any platform of choice”, and states plainly that cross-play requires that account. So the answer is yes - PlayStation, Xbox and PC players can play together - with one piece of homework before your first session.

Do that homework before everyone sits down, not during. The predictable version of this evening is four people in a voice call, one of whom is creating an account and checking an email while the other three wait. Make the SHiFT account when you install, link it, and confirm you can see each other in the friends list. The FAQ does not mention cross-save or cross-progression, so do not plan on moving a character between platforms - treat the machine you start on as the machine you finish on until 2K says otherwise.

What it costs after the box price

Two recurring costs that the store page will not lead with. First, the FAQ states that console online play requires a separate paid subscription - so PlayStation Plus or Xbox Game Pass on top of the game for any online session. PC players pay nothing extra. Second, local split-screen on a console does not need that subscription, which makes the two-on-one-couch arrangement the cheapest way into this game by a distance. If you are weighing those subscription costs across your whole group, what multiplayer actually costs per platform lays the arithmetic out.

Is Borderlands 4 on Switch 2?

Not yet. As of October 13, 2026 the FAQ says “coming soon” and gives no release date, while the current platform list is “PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S”. We are not going to guess a date, and we would not pre-plan a group around the Switch 2 version: when a port is announced without a date, the only safe assumption is that it is not part of this year's plans. If your group is Switch-centered, the Switch 2 multiplayer picks are what to buy instead.

Buy Borderlands 4 or Borderlands 3?

This is the real decision for most people, because Borderlands 3 is years old and routinely sells for a fraction of the price. Our answer splits on exactly one question: how many of you are in the room?

Two of you, on a current console: buy Borderlands 4. It is the newer game, the split-screen is clean, and the two-duos-make-a-four trick above is not something the older game does.

Three or four of you in one room: look at Borderlands 3 first. Its Xbox store description says it has “expanded local splitscreen support for up to 4 players”, which is the thing Borderlands 4 does not do. One caveat we will state rather than hide: the same listing's capability lines read “Xbox local co-op (2-2)”, so the page contradicts itself, and the four-player mode is described in the marketing copy rather than the structured data. If four-on-one-screen is the whole reason you are buying, read our Borderlands 3 reviewand verify it on your own console's store page before you spend.

Spread across different platforms: Borderlands 4.Its crossplay is documented in 2K's own FAQ and only needs a free account. Borderlands 3 is the one we would not plan a mixed-platform group around - its Xbox capability list carries no cross-platform entry at all, so check it in-game before anyone buys. Our Diablo IV versus Borderlands 3 comparison is the other half of this decision if crossplay is your binding constraint.

Who each co-op arrangement should buy

A couple, one PS5 or Series X|S, one copy. Borderlands 4. One purchase, two players, no subscription needed as long as you stay offline together. This is the configuration the game is best at and the cheapest multiplayer in the whole genre.

Two couples, two houses, two copies. Borderlands 4, and this is the arrangement worth knowing about: a local pair joins another local pair online for a four-player party, so four people play a full campaign on two purchases. Make the SHiFT accounts first.

Four friends, four machines, mixed platforms. Borderlands 4 works - four-player online co-op across all platforms with linked SHiFT accounts - but price the console subscriptions in before you commit, and compare it against Helldivers 2, which is built around exactly four players and is usually cheaper.

A family of four in one living room. Not this game. Two of the four will be watching. See four-player split-screen for the titles that fit, and co-op campaigns if you want a story to finish together.

The things we are not going to tell you

We have not given this game a score, and there is no playtime estimate, review average or “hours to platinum” figure on this page, because we have no first-party source for those numbers. What this page is for is the set of facts that decide whether the money works for your group, and every one of them is quoted above from 2K's own FAQ as it read on October 13, 2026. We are also not listing the current character or balance details: live-service shooters patch them, and a page with a live price on it should not carry claims that expire faster than the price does.

The two claims most likely to change are the Switch 2 release and the cross-progression situation. If either moves, this page needs a re-read - the date above is how you tell.

Where to go next

If what you want is the best looter to play with friends rather than specifically this one, online shooters and co-op RPGs are the two lists that cover the genre. If the split-screen part is the reason you are here, split-screen games on PS5 and split-screen games on Xbox put Borderlands in context against everything else your console can divide.