# Bigger, Regularized, Optimistic: scaling for compute and sample-efficient continuous control

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.16158 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.16158/

## Key facts

- Cited by 108 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Deep RL algorithms and representations, one of 15 directions in Deep reinforcement learning methods.
- Builds on 46 of its 63 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 25 May 2024.

## Placed in

- Deep reinforcement learning methods / [Deep RL algorithms and representations](https://mlsanity.com/deeprl/deep-rl-algorithms-and-representations/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 46)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11929/) (2020)
- [EfficientNet: Rethinking Model Scaling for Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.11946/) (2019)
- [Layer Normalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.06450/) (2016)
- [RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.15818/) (2023)
- [Addressing Function Approximation Error in Actor-Critic Methods](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.09477/) (2018)
- [PaLM-E: An Embodied Multimodal Language Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.03378/) (2023)
- [Spectral Normalization for Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.05957/) (2018)
- [D4RL: Datasets for Deep Data-Driven Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.07219/) (2020)
- [Offline Reinforcement Learning with Implicit Q-Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.06169/) (2021)
- [Mastering Diverse Domains through World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.04104/) (2023)
- [Soft Actor-Critic Algorithms and Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.05905/) (2018)
- [Meta-World: A Benchmark and Evaluation for Multi-Task and Meta Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.10897/) (2019)
- [DeepMind Control Suite](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.00690/) (2018)
- [On Layer Normalization in the Transformer Architecture](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.04745/) (2020)
- [Open X-Embodiment: Robotic Learning Datasets and RT-X Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08864/) (2023)
- [Deep Reinforcement Learning at the Edge of the Statistical Precipice](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.13264/) (2021)
- [A Distributional Perspective on Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.06887/) (2017)
- [TD-MPC2: Scalable, Robust World Models for Continuous Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.16828/) (2023)
- [Implicit Quantile Networks for Distributional Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.06923/) (2018)
- [Efficient Online Reinforcement Learning with Offline Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.02948/) (2023)
- [Data-Efficient Reinforcement Learning with Self-Predictive Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.05929/) (2020)
- [The Primacy Bias in Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.07802/) (2022)
- [What Matters In On-Policy Reinforcement Learning? A Large-Scale Empirical Study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.05990/) (2020)
- [Bigger, Better, Faster: Human-level Atari with human-level efficiency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.19452/) (2023)
- [Stop Regressing: Training Value Functions via Classification for Scalable Deep RL](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.03950/) (2024)
- [Dropout Q-Functions for Doubly Efficient Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.02034/) (2021)
- [Optimism in Reinforcement Learning with Generalized Linear Function Approximation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.04136/) (2019)
- [CrossQ: Batch Normalization in Deep Reinforcement Learning for Greater Sample Efficiency and Simplicity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.05605/) (2019)
- [Better Exploration with Optimistic Actor-Critic](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.12807/) (2019)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 108)

- [Flow Q-Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.02538/) (2025)
- [Simplifying Deep Temporal Difference Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.04811/) (2024)
- [SimBa: Simplicity Bias for Scaling Up Parameters in Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.09754/) (2024)
- [DIME:Diffusion-Based Maximum Entropy Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.02316/) (2025)
- [Horizon Reduction Makes RL Scalable](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.04168/) (2025)
- [Zero-Shot Whole-Body Humanoid Control via Behavioral Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.11054/) (2025)
- [1000 Layer Networks for Self-Supervised RL: Scaling Depth Can Enable New Goal-Reaching Capabilities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.14858/) (2025)
- [FastTD3: Simple, Fast, and Capable Reinforcement Learning for Humanoid Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.22642/) (2025)
- [Hyperspherical Normalization for Scalable Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.15280/) (2025)
- [Maximum Entropy Reinforcement Learning with Diffusion Policy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.11612/) (2025)
- [Plasticity Loss in Deep Reinforcement Learning: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.04832/) (2024)
- [Bigger, Regularized, Categorical: High-Capacity Value Functions are Efficient Multi-Task Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.23150/) (2025)
- [Stable Gradients for Stable Learning at Scale in Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.15544/) (2025)
- [floq: Training Critics via Flow-Matching for Scaling Compute in Value-Based RL](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.06863/) (2025)
- [Scaling Off-Policy Reinforcement Learning with Batch and Weight Normalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.07523/) (2025)
- [XQC: Well-conditioned Optimization Accelerates Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.25174/) (2025)
- [MAD-TD: Model-Augmented Data stabilizes High Update Ratio RL](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.08896/) (2024)
- [Chunking the Critic: A Transformer-based Soft Actor-Critic with N-Step Returns](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.03660/) (2025)
- [Learning Sim-to-Real Humanoid Locomotion in 15 Minutes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.01996/) (2025)
- [Value-Based Deep RL Scales Predictably](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.04327/) (2025)
- [Measure gradients, not activations! Enhancing neuronal activity in deep reinforcement learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.24061/) (2025)
- [Simplicial Embeddings Improve Sample Efficiency in Actor-Critic Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.13704/) (2025)
- [Network Sparsity Unlocks the Scaling Potential of Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.17204/) (2025)
- [EXPO-FT: Sample-Efficient Reinforcement Learning Finetuning for Vision-Language-Action Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.25477/) (2026)
- [DEAS: DEtached value learning with Action Sequence for Scalable Offline RL](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.07730/) (2025)
- [Active Fine-Tuning of Multi-Task Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.05026/) (2024)
- [A Forget-and-Grow Strategy for Deep Reinforcement Learning Scaling in Continuous Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.02712/) (2025)
- [TQL: Scaling Q-Functions with Transformers by Preventing Attention Collapse](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.01439/) (2026)
- [Multi-Task Reinforcement Learning Enables Parameter Scaling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.05126/) (2025)
- [SPiDR: A Simple Approach for Zero-Shot Safety in Sim-to-Real Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.18648/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Sample efficiency in Reinforcement Learning (RL) has traditionally been driven by algorithmic enhancements. In this work, we demonstrate that scaling can also lead to substantial improvements. We conduct a thorough investigation into the interplay of scaling model capacity and domain-specific RL enhancements. These empirical findings inform the design choices underlying our proposed BRO (Bigger, Regularized, Optimistic) algorithm. The key innovation behind BRO is that strong regularization allows for effective scaling of the critic networks, which, paired with optimistic exploration, leads to superior performance. BRO achieves state-of-the-art results, significantly outperforming the leading model-based and model-free algorithms across 40 complex tasks from the DeepMind Control, MetaWorld, and MyoSuite benchmarks. BRO is the first model-free algorithm to achieve near-optimal policies in the notoriously challenging Dog and Humanoid tasks.