Despite still being in its early access period exclusively for players who purchased the $119.99 Premium Edition, Forza Horizon 6 has already taken the title of the game in the series with the most concurrent players on Steam. Forza Horizon 6 has already managed to double the concurrent Steam player count of the last game in the series, and that’s before the vast majority of players jump into the action.
Forza Horizon 6 is the latest iteration of Playground Games’ long-running spin-off of the Forza Motorsport series. The latest game takes the series to Japan for the first time, a setting long requested by fans. Early reviews of Forza Horizon 6 have been excellent, garnering a Top Critic Average of 91 on review aggregator site OpenCritic. The early access period for the game has been live since May 15, and gamers have wasted no time getting lost in Forza Horizon 6‘s stunning rendition of Japan.
Don’t Make the Same Mistake I Did in Forza Horizon 6
Forza Horizon 6 players should be sure to avoid making one of the main mistakes I did playing through the open world racer.
Forza Horizon 6 Breaks Steam Player Count Record While in Early Access Period
According to SteamDB, Forza Horizon 6 has achieved a peak Steam player count of 178,009 during its early access. This makes it the game in the Forza Horizon series with the highest concurrent Steam players ever, more than doubling Forza Horizon 5‘s peak of 81,096. What makes it even more impressive is that Forza Horizon 5 was released on Steam on the same date as other platforms, so this is not a case where the record is a result of a delayed launch. Rather, this is just sheer hype generated by Forza Horizon 6.
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It seems inevitable that this record will be broken further in the coming week. Given the fact that Forza Horizon 6‘s early access period is only available to Premium Edition owners, there will be another huge wave of players who only purchased the base game arriving on May 19 on its normal launch date. It’s not clear exactly how many players have pre-ordered the base game, but there’s no doubt that it’s going to be by some margin the most played game in the series’ history on Steam when the dust settles.
With its early critical and commercial success, Forza Horizon 6 becomes the third game in 2026 to receive a 90+ average rating on OpenCritic. This makes it one of the best games of the year so far by some margin, joining esteemed company alongside Lost and Found Co. and Pokemon Pokopia. There’s no doubt about the game’s quality, and the next question will be whether the game will be nominated for awards recognition at the end of the year.
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Those who are already in-game have been sharing their feedback with developer Playground Games. While the sentiment overall is overwhelmingly positive, players have some complaints about Forza Horizon 6 that the studio will hopefully address in its first post-launch updates.
- Released
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May 19, 2026
- ESRB
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Everyone / Mild Lyrics, Users Interact, In-Game Purchases
- Publisher(s)
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Xbox Game Studios
