It’s been a crazy busy few months for Xbox Game Studios, more so for one of their first-party titles. Playground Game’s Forza Horizon 5 is easily one of the most popular Microsoft titles on the market, and has since become one of the most lauded racing simulators in recent memory. The newest tidbit to some out only emphasizes this, it was recently discovered by player on Resetera that Forza Horizon 5 has now surpassed more than 20 million active subscribers, doing so in less than seven months of launching.
Although this hasn’t been officially announced by Playground Games, the numbers are still ever present in the Horizon Festival List when players are in the actual game. It’s viewable on the leaderboard where it shows the players overall score and compares them to others around the world. The total player count can be seen at the bottom of that list, where it’s currently at a little more than 20 million, an unbelievable achievement for the title and the franchise. As we already stated, Forza Horizon 5 was one of the biggest titles in 2021 and was critically acclaimed. It was nominated for and won Best Sports/Racing Game at The Game Awards 2021, among other accolades.
One of the biggest contributing factors for this immense growth in the player base is more than likely due to the fact that it was available on the Xbox Game Pass when it launched. Making a fully priced first-party title, and one that was highly anticipated, available essentially for nothing, has huge potential for player growth right out of the gate. Playground hasn’t just been sitting on these laurels either, as they’ve been working on the title post-launch. They recently added a new progression system as well as some gameplay improvements, and they’re more than likely going to continue to improve the quality of life/maintenance of the title as the year progresses.