Forza Horizon 5 continues to cross milestones, as Playground Games has announced, and the in-game leaderboards have confirmed, that the title has surpassed 10 million players — making it the biggest launch in Xbox history.
It’s the latest landmark figure in the incredibly successful launch. Within the first 24 hours of the game’s official release, it amassed over 4.5 million players across the Xbox ecosystem; that includes consoles, cloud gaming, and PC.
Despite that massive figure, the game was still picking up one million new players per day across the first week.
Of course this shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise as this is the first Forza Horizon to be available on Game Pass at launch, and we can’t overstate how big of a role Gamepass likely played in the impressive player figures.
The subscription-based service gives players access to over 100 games without any additional purchase. Starting at $9.99 (£7.99/€9.99) per month, players can have their pick of the litter with the latest first-party titles. There’s also a $1 (£1/€1) introductory month, which we’d wager our garages on that plenty of players are taking advantage of right now.
Nonetheless, the figures are still startling; FH5 did in a matter of days what it took its predecessor roughly nine months. Doubtless it will end up being being the most-played Forza title to date, beating Forza Horizon 4’s 12 million lifetime players (at last count), and in record time — perhaps even by month’s end.
That isn’t to say FH5 has been perfect. Launch issues included, among others, online troubles that prevented players from taking part in and completing the all-new Horizon Arcade, or disconnects that caused player cars to stop dead in their tracks, prematurely ending any skill chain or event being taken part in.
The first major update went live, aiming to address these online connectivity issues and more. The latest iteration in the open world racer is also now available on Xbox Cloud Gaming, allowing those interested to take the game for a spin without having to use precious storage space or wait on long download times.
FH5 has garnered its fair share of critical acclaim, and for good reason. While we rated it highly in our review, we also say it’s more of the same in a newer location. That’s not a bad thing of course, because if it isn’t broken why fix it?
Those looking for the typical Horizon experience with new bits and bobs added should look no further than FH5. With players entering the autumn season for the first time, and two more all-new seasons to go, there’s still plenty to look forward to.
