The single charted at #52 in the UK, giving the group their 25th top 75 single and first UK chart visit since 2008's "We Are the People". Feeder hosted a trailer on YouTube titled "Coming Soon" on 2 December 2011 and had a message written in Morse code as "-... --- .-. -.. . .-. ...", which translates to "Borders" in standard English. On 6 December 2011 another trailer was released, announcing "Borders" as the first single from the new album, including a four-date tour.

The song was released on CD, cassette and 7" on 30 January 2012, with the parent album Generation Freakshow on 23 April 2012. This was the first time Feeder released a cassette single since 2001's "Just a Day". The song previously went through several different working titles, two of which being "Jessie" and "White City Rock".

Before the release of "Borders", Feeder fell short of the Top 75 with their last five singles but a four-format release strategy gave the band their 25th Top 75 hit, although none of their last five singles included a CD format, their previous Top 75 single did with this being 2008's "We Are the People", which charted in the Top 75 for one week at #25. According to trade magazine Music Week, "Borders" charted at #52 with 4,663 sales. That week "Borders" sold 2,978 copies digitally, with 644 on CD, 574 on 7" and 467 on cassette, giving total physical sales of 1,685. It was the first Top 75 hit to include sales from a cassette since Elton John's 2003 remix of "Are You Ready For Love?", which reached #1 in 2003. "Borders" was also the #1 7" and cassette, while also being the #2 CD single behind the previous year's Christmas #1 "Wherever You Are" by The Military Wives. Despite being the best-selling of the four formats, the digital formats was not amongst the Top 75 downloads, nor would have these sales been strong enough alone to warrant a Top 75 chart position.

When the single was released, the band were on tour. This enabled a marketing plan to be devised in which if a person attending a gig bought a ticket from the official site Feederweb, they had the option to also pre-order a copy of the single on all of its three physical formats. The cost of the singles was then included in the ticket price, with the ticket holder then producing their receipt to a merchandise stall vendor.

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