Microsoft and Xbox's new open-world arcade racer from Playground Games, Forza Horizon 6, was widely expected to be one of 2026's biggest and most successful games in the leadup to its May 19 launch — and since then, it's more than lived up to those expectations.

Indeed, Forza is putting pedal to the metal right now, with the game enjoying a huge Early Access launch last week that led into an even larger full release that saw over 270,000 players hit the road on Steam alone. To say that its performance thus far is impressive would be an understatement — and as it turns out, it's not slowing down, either.

If anything, Forza Horizon 6 has shifted into a new gear, with the game achieving a new peak concurrent player count of 284,139 on Steam on Thursday morning (as SteamDB data shows). Given that it's putting up those numbers on a weekday morning, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if it accelerates up to and past 300,000 this weekend.

At the same time, Playground Games also announced on social media that Forza Horizon 6 has hit over 6 million players in just one week after its May 15 Early Access release, and a mere two days after its full launch. That number encompasses players on all platforms and services, including Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox Game Pass, and Steam.

"Forza Horizon 6? More like Forza Horizon 6-Million!" wrote the developers in a celebratory post. "Thank you all for joining us at Horizon Japan."

It's been awesome to see the game take over the internet and everyone enjoying driving around Japan these past few days, even if I'm not really surprised by the success given how popular its predecessor, Forza Horizon 5, was. I haven't gotten the chance to play it myself yet, but I look forward to doing so soon.

It's worth noting that, according to Xbox's new CEO Asha Sharma, Forza Horizon 6 had the biggest Early Access launch in the franchise's history, which is also not surprising considering it was nearly hitting 200,000 concurrent players on Steam during those first few days.

The open-world racer is also the highest rated game of 2026 so far, beating other acclaimed hits like Resident Evil Requiem, Mixtape, and Pokémon Pokopia with an extremely high Metacritic score of 91/100. It's gotten rave reviews across the board, with my Windows Central colleague Michael Hoglund awarding it a 4.5/5 star score himself in our review.

"From the neon pulse of Tokyo to mist-shrouded mountside grounds, Forza Horizon 6 doesn’t rewrite history, but layers perfection on top of perfection to make the latest entry the most polished experience to date," he wrote.

Forza Horizon 6 is available for its $69.99 MSRP on Xbox and PC, but you can actually get it for just $53.99 at Loaded thanks to an awesome deal. The pricier Deluxe and Premium Editions are on sale for $84.29 at Loaded and $89.99 at Loaded, respectively; you can also play with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass, if you have an active subscription.

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Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he's been an avid fan since childhood. He's been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you'll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he's not writing or gaming, there's a good chance he's either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once. Follow him on X (Twitter).