Forza Horizon 5 is Xbox Game Studios’ ‘biggest ever launch day’

Xbox boss Phil Spencer claims Forza Horizon 5 enjoyed the “largest launch day” in the history of Xbox Game Studios.

The fifth entry in Playground Games‘ open-world racing series was released on Tuesday following an early access period for players who bought the Premium Edition.

Spencer took to Twitter on Tuesday night to praise the launch, saying it was the biggest the publisher had seen to date.

He also stated that the game was tracking much higher than its predecessor, Forza Horizon 4, and claimed that Xbox’s vision of having players across different devices was paying off.

“We’ve invested for years in Xbox so more people can play,” Spencer tweeted. “With 4.5+ million players so far across PC, cloud & console, Forza Horizon 5 shows that promise coming to life.

“Largest launch day for [an Xbox Game Studios] game, peak concurrent [players] 3x [Forza Horizon 4’s] high. Thank you players, and congrats to [Playground Games].”

Although Horizon 5 officially launched on November 9, more than 1.2 million users across PC and Xbox could be found already playing the game via the $99 / £85 Premium Edition, which includes early access.

Game Pass subscribers are also able to purchase the Premium Edition’s add-ons (which included early access) for $45 / £40.

That means the first-party Xbox title had already grossed between $54 million and $118 million before its general release on Tuesday.

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Forza Horizon 5 is now the highest-rated new game of the year

The Xbox racer has scored better than any other new game in 2021, according to aggregators

VGC’s Forza Horizon 5 review called the racer “the first essential game of the generation”.

“This is the best Forza Horizon has ever been,” our review reads. “Because of this, it’s among the best the racing genre has ever seen, and – as its predecessor accomplished before it – it’s easily one of the best games this generation has seen so far.”

It adds: “Forza Horizon 5 is the best game in the series and the best Xbox Series X/S game to date. Its flawless racing and wealth of activities are backed up by a gorgeous setting and a fantastic new progression system which encourages players to focus on the features they enjoy most. Utterly essential.”