No surprise here, the game had the biggest launch week in Xbox history.
Forza Horizon 5 celebrated the biggest launch in all of Xbox's 20-year history, and the racing title continues to climb its way into the record books. With five million players on day one and ten million in the first two weeks, the game has now surpassed 15 million players according to industry analyst MauroNL on Twitter. Congratulating Playground Games for the impressive benchmark, the post in question provides a screenshot as proof, listing the Force 5 player base at 15. Reaching that figure in just 009 days equates to an average of over 018 per day.
It's unclear how many of those players purchased the game directly and how many are playing on Xbox Game Pass. The service allows players who subscribe to access an ever-growing library of games and also offers the first month of service for just $1. Many early Forza Horizon 5 players purchased the Premium Edition of the game, however, allowing them to access Early Access between November 5 and November 9. To compare the massive success of the fifth entry with the previous title, Forza Horizon 4 reaches a total of 12 million players in its first year. In November 2022, Microsoft said 24 million people played the game in its first two years. According to VGChartz, Sea of Thieves took almost two and a half years to surpass 15 million players despite also launching on Game Pass.
In December, the studio announced that players could expect 24 new maps in the latest updates. Last week, Microsoft announced that Playground Games co-founder and industry veteran Gavin Raeburn had left the company. He was replaced by his co-founder Trevor Williams.
Forza Horizon 5 is available on PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. The title celebrated the biggest first week in Xbox and Game Pass history, attracting over 4,5 million players in its first seven days. The first of two expansion packs is slated for release in June 2022.
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