This is arguably the biggest achievement of Xbox … for a long time. Abused on the generation Xbox one (less than 50 million consoles sold, very few notable exclusives), Xbox has once again taken its head out of the water since the summer. The launch of the monumental Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox Series X, the very good The Psychonauts 2, the weighty exclusives of third-party publishers (12 Minutes, The Ascent, The Artful Escape, Omno, Unpacking), the excellent extension A Pirate’s Life (Sea of thieves) as well as the recent releases of very big titles in the Game Pass (Hades, It take two) have considerably consolidated the bundle Xbox + Game Pass.
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 @WeArePlayground
– Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) November 10, 2021
The launch of Forza Horizon 5 this Tuesday, November 9 came in a way to complete this very good pass. And the success has been there… to a point never seen before at Xbox! Phil spencer has indeed confirmed on his account Twitter than the studio game Playground has managed to attract more than 4.5 million players since its launch (PC, Xbox). This score is three times higher than that of the predecessor Forza Horizon 4. Never any game of the Xbox Game Studios had reached such a number of active players just hours after its launch.
Forza Horizon 5’s incredible Mexican backdrops arguably played a big part in the game’s success
One might think that FH 5 is a hit only thanks to its presence day one in the Game Pass, but that’s not quite true. Pre-orders of the Premium Edition have thus exceeded one million copies and the game currently ranks at the top of sales on Steam. Forza Horizon 5 is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series, PC, and Xbox Game Pass.
