Forza Horizon 5 Passes 6 Million Players Less Than a Week After Release

Forza Horizon 5 Record Users 01.jpg
Less than a week after it was released, Microsoft has announced that 6 million players have tried Forza Horizon 5.

On November 5th, nearly 800,000 owners of the Premium edition of Forza Horizon 5 played Playground Games’s newest racing title. In the week since, that number has grown to over 6 million players across PC, Xbox and cloud platforms. 4.5 million players enjoyed FH5 on the first day alone, a number eclipsed only by Grand Theft Auto V’s launch day, and comfortably the biggest launch day for a racing game.

The reviews of the title have been overwhelmingly positive, including my own review of Forza Horizon 5 published recently. The setting for the fifth edition of the Forza Horizon series is Mexico, and Playground Games has offered players the largest map of any title in the series plus over 500 cars at launch. The open world themed racing game allows you to compete with or against other players from around the world who appear on the map simultaneously, or race solo in any of the hundreds of single-player challenges on offer.

Forza Horizon 5 Record Users 02.jpg


Our Forza Horizon 5 forum is live, including a Horizon 5 photo thread that I’ve set up. If you’re among the millions of players now enjoying this title, be sure to drop a photo of your favourite car or setting from Forza’s Mexico.
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About author
Mike Smith
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

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  • Deleted member 197115

Gabyzen64 said:
The confirmation once again that when a team plays a successful and quality game, the players do not wait. Great work Microsoft! :D :D :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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Not sure about quality for what is currently in the wild but hopefully in a few months it gets there.
 
Shannon Flynn
Judging by reviews on Steam, I'm willing to bet that of those 6 million, 2 million have the game downloaded and can't get past the first cutscene.
It's quite infuriating. I have a well above-average system, and the game crashed about 20 times trying to get through that nonsense.
Looking forward to the big patch coming this week
 
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Cote Dazur
"comfortably the biggest launch day for a racing game"
Why should I care?

Proving once again that their is a huge difference between a racing game and a simulator. It addresses 2 different groups, one is much bigger than the other, yes, some people can be part of the 2 groups, or any other, but still, both genre are very different.

I tried FH4, out of curiosity, still fire it every once in a while, when it works, I enjoy a slow cruise in the British countryside, as I sip my coffee.

If I feel like immersing myself in some simulated driving, I put on my VR goggle and immerse myself in motorsport with one of the proper SIM. That I do every day.

FH4 is the same as FH5, different country, seems to me a lot of people are bored to death from FH4 and think FH5 will be less boring, it will ware out very fast, no substance to it, just easy peasy stuff.

Meanwhile, after 8 years, I still enjoy more than ever AC.

So what do you think I think about those 4.5 millions first day and 6 millions after a week people playing, or trying to play FH5?

I wish them to have a lot of fun, but they could be playing FIFA and it would be of about as much interest to me. :)
 
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ShredatorFIN
There's reports of players who didn't get their wheel working. Now I've seen three reviewers have that, Mike Smith from RD and "Worth A Buy" and "Viperconcept" from YouTube, who tried 3 different wheels. Pretty big warning flag, at this point (unless you're fine with controller)
 
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Ole Marius Myrvold
Club Staff
Premium
On Sunday, out of the then 1.6million people that had gotten accolade points in the game. I was in 2200th place.
With insane workload this week, I have luckily dropped down.
 
Lesley Buurlage
Cote Dazur said:
"comfortably the biggest launch day for a racing game"
Why should I care?

Proving once again that their is a huge difference between a racing game and a simulator. It addresses 2 different groups, one is much bigger than the other, yes, some people can be part of the 2 groups, or any other, but still, both genre are very different.

I tried FH4, out of curiosity, still fire it every once in a while, when it works, I enjoy a slow cruise in the British countryside, as I sip my coffee.

If I feel like immersing myself in some simulated driving, I put on my VR goggle and immerse myself in motorsport with one of the proper SIM. That I do every day.

FH4 is the same as FH5, different country, seems to me a lot of people are bored to death from FH4 and think FH5 will be less boring, it will ware out very fast, no substance to it, just easy peasy stuff.

Meanwhile, after 8 years, I still enjoy more than ever AC.

So what do you think I think about those 4.5 millions first day and 6 millions after a week people playing, or trying to play FH5?

I wish them to have a lot of fun, but they could be playing FIFA and it would be of about as much interest to me. :)
Click to expand...
You clearly cared enough to write an essay on why this isn't your type of game, good for you!

But hey, not every racing game has to be a sim you know, a lot of people don't live in VR cars ;)

There's no sacred defenition what quantifies a racing game, heck Asphalt 8 is one and has the most BS physics i've ever seen, not my cup of tea but i'm not gonna complain about how inferior it is to whatever i prefer, in the end it's a game which there is for people to enjoy.

So yeah, leave your "I don't care" next to the pile of "No VR no buy" comments and go enjoy your AC while me and 6 million others are having fun our way :thumbsup:
 
Ole Marius Myrvold
Club Staff
Premium
Cote Dazur said:
So what do you think I think about those 4.5 millions first day and 6 millions after a week people playing, or trying to play FH5?

I wish them to have a lot of fun, but they could be playing FIFA and it would be of about as much interest to me. :)
Click to expand...

Well, I luckily don't play games for it to be of interest to you (or any other). Neither what you might think of me as one of the x-million who have played Horizon 5.

Though, I do prefer simulations myself, I do enjoy the "pick up xbox controller, throw around for 25min, go to work" that Horizon 5 (and 4 and 3) can offer.
 
Cote Dazur
Ben O'Bro said:
do you go on FIFA forums to say you also don't care ?
Click to expand...

To be fair, I did not say I don't care, I ask why I should care? Second I am on RD, which I enjoy regularly, as it is motorsport related and heavily covering SIM, so no, I don't read any FIFA forum, but if I was it would because I would be interested in football.

The article, TO ME, is making an amalgam, between what we enjoy, where you do great modding, and other type of games.

I understand also the attraction of millions of players to any forum site or any you tuber, nothing wrong with it per say. Forza players should feel welcome here.


Ole Marius Myrvold said:
Though, I do prefer simulations myself, I do enjoy the "pick up xbox controller, throw around for 25min, go to work" that Horizon 5 (and 4 and 3) can offer.
Click to expand...

Good for you, so do I. For the record anyone is entitled to enjoy any game they like, or no game at all, I never implied any one playing Forza is not correct in doing so.

My post is about apples and oranges, that oranges sell more than apples is not relevant to me. Their is no comparison between the SIM niche and Racing game like Forza Horizon niche.

Yes, I read the news of other titles than the one I am more interested in and yes I take the time to share my opinion. Sometime to say how great I think it is and sometime to say how irrelevant it is to me.

This is not (yet) a dedicated Forza forum, so I feel adequate in expressing my views, as it is a forum still.

Long life to anything related to motorsport, long life to Forza, may Forza Horizon 6 reach 50 million players on day one.

Lesley Buurlage said:
You clearly cared enough to write an essay
Click to expand...
I care about RD, and I care about SIM racing, yes absolutely.
 
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Richard Wilks
Cote Dazur said:
"comfortably the biggest launch day for a racing game"
Why should I care?

Proving once again that their is a huge difference between a racing game and a simulator. It addresses 2 different groups, one is much bigger than the other, yes, some people can be part of the 2 groups, or any other, but still, both genre are very different.

I tried FH4, out of curiosity, still fire it every once in a while, when it works, I enjoy a slow cruise in the British countryside, as I sip my coffee.

If I feel like immersing myself in some simulated driving, I put on my VR goggle and immerse myself in motorsport with one of the proper SIM. That I do every day.

FH4 is the same as FH5, different country, seems to me a lot of people are bored to death from FH4 and think FH5 will be less boring, it will ware out very fast, no substance to it, just easy peasy stuff.

Meanwhile, after 8 years, I still enjoy more than ever AC.

So what do you think I think about those 4.5 millions first day and 6 millions after a week people playing, or trying to play FH5?

I wish them to have a lot of fun, but they could be playing FIFA and it would be of about as much interest to me. :)
Click to expand...
The irony in your post is that, if there is a game that these days most resemble FH, its exactly AC, with his roaming servers and maps and it's roster of (ripped) supercars. Very little actual "racing" is done in your game of choice, so either you can't see it, or you are just nickpicking totally subjective things.
 
Cote Dazur
Richard Wilks said:
The irony in your post is that, if there is a game that these days most resemble FH, its exactly AC, with his roaming servers and maps and it's roster of (ripped) supercars. Very little actual "racing" is done in your game of choice, so either you can't see it, or you are just nickpicking totally subjective things.
Click to expand...
If you do not see the big difference between FH4 or FH5 and AC, I am sad for you.
 
E
Shannon Flynn said:
Judging by reviews on Steam, I'm willing to bet that of those 6 million, 2 million have the game downloaded and can't get past the first cutscene.
It's quite infuriating. I have a well above-average system, and the game crashed about 20 times trying to get through that nonsense.
Looking forward to the big patch coming this week
Click to expand...
Disconnect your Fanatec wheel ;)
 
D

  • Deleted member 197115

wolftree said:
The usual suspects posting Steam Charts in the AMS2 threads will soon appear to confirm that FH5 must be the best and most realistic sim ever...
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No, the usual suspect will barge into random game thread and start white knighting AMS2. You know, as usual. :p
 
C
$1.00 for three months, that should get me to a point where I have had enough. It feels just like FH4, in a different place. I really enjoyed FH4, but I think that was me being a Brit in exile; it was really nice driving around Britain while I cant do it for real, even if it is a sanitized Britain. So I am not expecting FH5 to have the same longevity for me. Three months should just about be right.
 
V
If you aren't giving this game at least a shot you're missing out. I just downloaded it and tried it out with my G27. The FFB, while not amazing by any means, is absolutely improved on from the previous games. And the physics are, for some cars at least, shockingly plausible, if not truly 100% realstic. The supercars are given comically strong front tires and loads of downforce for the casuals, yes, but I just bought a Cadillac CTS-V and it's a slide-happy heavy boat that wants to kick the tail out every corner in a way that is just incredibly fun. Combine that with the improved FFB meaning that I can actually feel out the slides and maintain and catch them with proper counter-steering, and this game feels like it's gonna be really fun. The car also has a really good sense of weight transfer with how I need to feather the throttle to keep the car sliding through the turns without spinning.

Driving this thing is a blast. That's really all I can say. All you gotta do to have fun in Horizon is stay away from the supercars and hypercars, those are painfully simplistic and clearly meant for casuals. But the other cars are way more fun to drive.

Is it AC or iRacing or GTR2 or AMS? No, but this isn't a mindless "mash the gas and auto-drift through every corner snoozefest either, if you turn all the assists off.
 
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What is on your wishlist for ACC Evo

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    Votes: 39 32.2%

  • Online service

    Votes: 20 16.5%

  • Advanced feature AI

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  • Graphics

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  • Car customization

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  • Modding

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  • Career

    Votes: 44 36.4%

  • License

    Votes: 17 14.0%

  • VR Support

    Votes: 24 19.8%
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