Forza Horizon 5 has finally launched in full and guess what, after almost a million players arrived in Mexico early from the more expensive editions, another 3 and a half million followed suit on launch day.
Xbox head Phil Spencer has congratulated developers Playground Games for the achievement, citing over 4.5 million have played Forza Horizon 5 at launch, making it the biggest Xbox Game Studios title’s launch day playerbase yet.
“We’ve invested for years in Xbox so more people can play. With 4.5+ million players so far across PC, cloud & console, Forza Horizon 5 shows that promise coming to life,” he tweweted.
The 4.5+ million player count is three times higher than the peak concurrent number of players on Forza Horizon 4.
Spencer attributed the high numbers thanks to the open-world racing game’s availability on PC, cloud as well as on Xbox consoles. Horizon 4 only launched on Xbox One and PC via the Microsoft Store. Meanwhile, Horizon 5 is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store.
In addition, Horizon 5 is also available on launch on Xbox Game Pass, which includes cloud gaming in supported regions.
It’s crazy to think this is the biggest Microsoft first-party game launch yet, a car game. Racing games these days are a small niche but with the numbers Forza Horizon 5 is boasting so far (and the very positive early reviews from various media sites), there’s still a mainstream market for a good racing game accessible for all.
There’s still one more big Xbox Game Studios title coming later this year. Halo Infinite is set to launch on December 8.