Why Take-Two Interactive Stock Zoomed Almost 11% Higher in September

Key Points

• It released the latest title in one of its franchises, and take-up was brisk.

• The game had a large army of players less than a week after its release.

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The ninth month of 2025 was an eventful period for the video game industry generally, and sector stalwart Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ: TTWO) in particular. In mid-September, the company released the long-awaited sequel to one of its titles, and later in the month, its stock got a boost from speculation -- later proved to be accurate -- of a monster deal for a peer.

Ultimately, Take-Two did well across September, climbing by nearly 11% in price against the S&P 500 index's 3.5% rise.

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Crossing the border

Although the global, multi-platform release of Borderlands 4 was entirely expected (and, therefore, at least somewhat priced into Take-Two's stock), investors were happy to see the title arrive, and this sentiment helped support the share price. The last game in the first-person shooter franchise (yes, Borderlands 3) was released almost exactly six years prior, after all.

Image source: Getty Images.

No. 4 sold briskly in the days and weeks after its launch. Official figures haven't been divulged, but in a post on its Substack page, gaming researcher Alinea Analytics wrote that the game's player count hit more than 2.5 million less than one week after its release. In dollar terms, according to the researcher's estimate, these sales likely topped $150 million in total. How's that for a few days' work?

Take-Two's stock got a bigger pop from a major event outside its control. As September wound down, The Wall Street Journal reported white-hot speculation that video gaming mainstay Electronic Arts was about to go private. Take-Two benefited from the resulting excitement about the attractiveness of the wider gaming sector.

Score one for mainstream media -- that reporting turned out to be entirely accurate, as three days later, that same newspaper reported a staggering ($55 billion) deal to put Electronic Arts in the hands of a consortium of investors (comprising Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and private equity star Silver Lake, among others). This makes it the largest leveraged buyout (LBO) in history.

A Grand Theft in the works

As we entered October, the considerable buzz generated by the deal and the popularity of Borderlands 4 continued to support Take-Two's price.

These two developments alone should help carry the stock into May of next year, when -- talking about eagerly anticipated sequels -- another franchise entry, Grand Theft Auto VI, is scheduled for release (on May 26, to be precise). All things considered, Take-Two, as a solid player in a prosperous and popular sector, is well worth consideration as a buy.

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Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Take-Two Interactive Software. The Motley Fool recommends Electronic Arts. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.