Forza Horizon 5 surpasses 10 million players to become the biggest Xbox game launch ever

Forza Horizon 5 Merceded-amg project one — (Image credit: Xbox Games Studios)

Update: Forza Horizon 5 has smashed records for the biggest Xbox and Xbox Game Pass launch of all time.

Earlier today, the official Forza Horizon Twitter account revealed the latest game in the racing franchise had surpassed a staggering 10 million players in the 10 days since it officially arrived on Xbox Game Pass on November 9. That's not just the biggest Xbox Game Pass launch ever - apparently it's the single biggest Xbox game launch in the console's history.

Thank you to the more than 10M #ForzaHorizon5 fans for the biggest first week in @Xbox history and @XboxGamePass EVER. GG! pic.twitter.com/WXZawEvBkONovember 19, 2021

Original story: If you're been asking yourself how many players does Forza Horizon 5 have, then Xbox has confirmed that its player count has already surpassed 4.5 million players worldwide on all platforms, less than 24 hours after launch.

Revealing the new statistics is Xbox head Phil Spencer, who took to Twitter late last night to reveal the new numbers. Forza Horizon 5 just officially launched yesterday on November 9, with early access beginning a few days prior on November 5, but Spencer reveals that Playground's new racing sim has already sped past 4.5 million players.

We've invested for years in Xbox so more people can play. With 4.5+ million players so far across PC, cloud & console, Forza Horizon 5 shows that promise coming to life. Largest launch day for XGS game, peak concurrent 3x FH4 high. Thank you players & congrats to @WeArePlaygroundNovember 10, 2021

Even before Forza Horizon 5 had officially launched, it had already amassed a player count of over 800,000. While Playground's game is now available through Xbox Game Pass, this wasn't the case back on November 5 when the early access period kicked off, so anyone playing from this date would've needed to shell out full retail price to get in on the action.

In particular though, Spencer claims that Forza Horizon 5 is the biggest launch title ever for Xbox Game Pass, and has also tripled Forza Horizon 4's peak concurrent player number. This is a pretty staggering feat for the new racing game from Playground, and aside from this, it's nice to get a peek behind the curtain at Microsoft's game statistics for once, something that's typically closely guarded by the company when it comes to game sales numbers.

As for the game itself though, Forza Horizon 5 is proving an absolute smash hit success with players around the world, and in particular is drawing praise for its accessibility options, which even boast a sign language interpreter. Head over to our interview with Playground for how the developer put accessibility settings first and foremost, or you can read our glowing Forza Horizon 5 review to see why it might be the first must-buy of the generation for Xbox owners.

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Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.