Xbox’s biggest and most critically acclaimed franchise is no longer Halo, Gears, or Fable, but a series of open world racing sims
Forza Horizon 6 is a very good video game, and I’m not the only critic saying so. In fact, according to review aggregation site Metacritic, Xbox and Playground Games’ latest open-world racing sim is now the highest-rated video game release of 2026.
On May 14, a day before Forza Horizon 6 launches via (booo!) paid early access, reviews for the game went live at outlets across the web, and the general consensus is that this new entry in the franchise is fantastic. As of 11:30 a.m. EST on Thursday, Forza Horizon 6 is sitting at an impressive 92 overall rating on Metacritic based on 62 reviews on Xbox Series X/S. Previously, the highest-rated games of 2026 on Metacritic were Resident Evil Requiem and Pokémon Pokopia, which both share an 89 on the aggregator site.
It’s not surprising at all that Forza Horizon 6 is reviewing so well. The franchise has been on a roll for years now. The last three games in the series all hit 90+ overall ratings on Metacritic.
- Forza Horizon 5 – 92
- Forza Horizon 4 – 92
- Forza Horizon 3 – 91
It’s clear that Forza Horizon, not Halo, Gears, Fable, or any other Xbox franchise, has become Microsoft’s most consistently popular and critically acclaimed series over the last decade. Not bad for a driving game that started life as a weird spin-off of a larger, more established franchise. By focusing on making each entry bigger, wackier, and yet never ruining the superb driving and physics simulation from the Forza Motorsport series, Playground Games and Xbox have crafted one of the game industry’s most successful franchises. Stand aside, Master Chief, Forza Horizon is the true Xbox king.
Keep in mind that when ranking games based on their overall rating, Metacritic defaults to using a game’s most reviewed platform as its main score. So Resident Evil Requiem‘s 89 is based on PS5 reviews. The game has far fewer Xbox reviews and, as a result, a much higher rating, which isn’t a fair comparison, but still worth pointing out.
