Forza Horizon 6 hasn’t even launched for most players yet, and it is already rewriting the record books. Over 172,000 concurrent players flooded Steam during early access, all of them paying a $120 premium just to get in a few days early. The real wave hasn’t arrived yet.

A Number That Rewrites the Franchise Record

According to SteamDB, Forza Horizon 6 peaked at 172,093 concurrent players on Steam on May 15, 2026. This happened within hours of its early access window opening for Premium Edition owners, before the standard edition was available to anyone.

That figure more than doubles the all-time concurrent Steam peak of Forza Horizon 5, which reached 81,096 players during its launch weekend in November 2021.

Here is how the franchise stacks up in all-time Steam concurrent players:

Every single one of those 172,093 players paid $119.99 for the Premium Edition. The standard $70 edition was not available. The cheaper Game Pass access was also locked until May 19.

What makes this so significant is the context. This is not a post-launch spike or a free-to-play rush. This is a paying crowd, spending serious money to enter a few days ahead of everyone else, and they showed up in record-breaking numbers.

Reports from Game Rant indicate the peak climbed even further to 178,009 concurrent players as early access continued through May 15 and 16, though the 172,093 figure from the SteamDB official account remains the widely cited milestone. Either way, the scale is impossible to ignore.

Forza Horizon 6 record breaking Steam concurrent players 2026

Japan Was Always the Right Setting

Playground Games confirmed that Japan was chosen after years of sustained fan demand. The developer stated that this felt like the right moment because the technology was finally capable of representing the country without compromise.

Art director Don Arceta described Japan as “a location full of contrast,” noting that urban environments and mountainous roads sit side by side in ways that make it a natural fit for open-world racing.

The map is the largest and most detailed in franchise history. Here is what players get at launch:

• Over 550 real-world cars, all fully customizable
• Tokyo city built as the largest urban area in any Horizon game, five times bigger than previous city zones
• Mountain touge roads, coastal highways, and countryside stretches
• Shibuya Crossing and Tokyo Tower among iconic in-game landmarks
• New Touge Showdown mode for one-on-one mountain pass duels
• Spec Racing events where all players use identical cars for skill-based competition
• Nine radio stations featuring Japanese artists including BABYMETAL and ONE OK ROCK

Players begin the game as tourists in Japan, working their way up by earning wristbands through races, events, and stunts before eventually unlocking the exclusive Legend Island reserved for the highest-ranked drivers.

Turn 10 Studios contributed to the development after shifting its focus away from Forza Motorsport in late 2025. Their experience in simulation-focused racing helped Playground Games improve car detail, physics, and audio. The result includes remastered engine sounds, cosmetic tire wear, and updated steering animations with up to 540 degrees of wheel rotation.

Critics Are Calling It the Best Game of 2026

The numbers were always going to be impressive. What caught some observers off guard was how strong the critical reception turned out to be alongside those player counts.

Forza Horizon 6 opened with a Metacritic score of 92, making it the highest-rated game of 2026 and tying it with Forza Horizon 4 and Forza Horizon 5 as the joint highest-rated entries in the franchise’s history.

Eurogamer awarded a perfect 100, describing it as the “cleanest, buzziest, and most engrossing” entry in the series. Insider Gaming gave it a 10 out of 10, praising the Japan setting as “breathtaking.” OpenCritic reports that 100% of critics recommended the game.

That kind of unanimous approval on a sixth mainline entry is genuinely rare. Most long-running franchises face criticism by this point for playing it safe. Forza Horizon 6 largely avoided that fate by betting on a setting fans had been requesting for years and delivering it at a level that matched the expectation.

Not every publication was unconditional. Polygon raised a legitimate question about how much longer the franchise can follow its current formula before the sense of routine becomes a problem. Gamereactor UK scored it a 70, the most notable outlier. But with 63 out of 65 Xbox Series X/S reviews rated positive on Metacritic, those dissenting voices are clearly in the minority.

The Biggest Wave Is Still Coming

The May 19 launch is where the story shifts into a higher gear. Standard edition buyers, Game Pass Ultimate members, and PC Game Pass subscribers all gain access on that date, bringing a wave of players that will dwarf even the premium early access crowd.

Microsoft does not publish combined player numbers across Xbox consoles, the Microsoft Store, and Steam. The actual total playing Forza Horizon 6 right now is almost certainly far higher than any Steam figure can reflect.

Xbox Game Pass alone carries tens of millions of subscribers globally. When that audience arrives on May 19 at no additional cost, the concurrent Steam peak will likely be tested again. The franchise record that fell during early access could fall again within days of the standard launch.

A PlayStation 5 version is also confirmed for later in 2026, with no specific date announced yet. That platform release will bring another entirely new audience to the game, extending its reach well beyond the Xbox and PC ecosystem.

For the racing genre on Steam, context matters here. According to GamesRadar, this is already the biggest racing game on the platform in over five years. The last time numbers even approached this level was Forza Horizon 5’s own launch, and that ceiling has now been shattered before the majority of players have even logged in.

Forza Horizon 6 has delivered something the gaming industry rarely sees: a game where the player numbers, critical scores, and community excitement all line up at the same time. Playground Games spent years building toward Japan, and the response from players willing to spend $120 just to be first suggests that patience paid off. When Game Pass opens the doors on May 19 and millions more join the Horizon Festival, this story is only going to get bigger. What do you think about Forza Horizon 6’s record-breaking launch? Drop your thoughts in the comments and join the conversation on X and Instagram using #ForzaHorizon6.