Forza Horizon 6′s Early Access period has just started, and neither its high price tag nor the piracy concerns stemming from its early leaking seemed to matter, with the game already boasting a peak of over 170K concurrent Early Access players on Steam alone.
The number, courtesy of SteamDB, is even more surprising if we consider how it almost doubles Forza Horizon 5‘s all-time peak of 81,096 on the platform. It also segments May as an absolute win for Microsoft, with its other major release, Subnautica 2, peaking at over 470K players on release day and staying strong at around 350K a day later. Forza Horizon 6 also currently sits as 2026’s best-reviewed game on Metacritic, with its 92 beating titles like Resident Evil 9, Pokémon Pokopia, Mewgenics, and Saros, Housemarque’s follow-up to Returnal.
It will also not be a surprise to see the game’s numbers go further up once it fully releases on Monday, May 19. Remember, to join Early Access, players on all platforms had to either pay $120 for its Premium Edition or $59.99 on top of their monthly Ultimate Game Pass subscription for its Premium Upgrade.
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Looking at a different angle, though, even if the above can be seen as an absolute win for racing games, as well as set Horizon as its own entity at the top of the mountain, it can also be a worrisome sign. After all, in the same way Mario Kart World‘s success justified Nintendo’s new price tag, Horizon 6‘s Early Access numbers might allow other publishers to lock the feature behind higher price tags at little drawback.
You can currently acquire Forza Horizon 6 on both PC and Xbox Series S/X, with the game’s PlayStation 5 version being scheduled to arrive at a later date. If you are still unsure whether or not to push the Premium button, don’t forget to check out what critics are saying about Xbox’s new racer.
Published: May 15, 2026 02:40 pm