Forza Horizon 6 has not officially launched yet, but it has already broken the series’ all-time concurrent player record on Steam. Thanks to four days of early access, buyers of the Premium Edition are already playing, pushing the game to 172,093 simultaneous players on Valve’s platform. That is excellent news for Microsoft and Playground Games, but it also confirms that paid early access tied to expensive editions continues to work – even though a large part of the community has criticized the practice for years.

The launch of Forza Horizon 6 has already delivered a major result before the game’s official release. Playground Games’ driving title is currently available to those who purchased the Premium Edition, a special version that includes several downloadable content packs along with four days of early access. As a result, the game reached 172,093 concurrent users on Steam, with each of those players spending €120 to secure their digital license ahead of the standard launch. Total sales are naturally higher than that single platform figure, and concurrent player numbers may climb even further over the weekend, when more players are likely to spend longer sessions with the game.

The new record is especially striking when compared to Forza Horizon 5. While there is no official data for that game’s early access phase, its post-launch peak on Steam was around 81,000 concurrent users. Forza Horizon 6 has therefore more than doubled the known figure achieved by its predecessor, despite launching under far from ideal circumstances. The game leaked online before release, which is already a serious problem for both publisher and developer, and it also has to compete with its own Game Pass version at a time when Microsoft’s subscription service has lowered its price.

Forza Horizon Is Now One Of Microsoft’s Safest Bets

The result once again shows that Forza Horizon is one of Microsoft’s strongest and most reliable brands. The series is increasingly positioned to challenge classic Xbox names such as Halo and Gears of War in popularity. The previous installment also became Microsoft’s best-selling first-party title on PlayStation 5, which makes it clear that the franchise has expanded well beyond the traditional Xbox audience. From that perspective, the early success of Forza Horizon 6 is another confirmation that the brand is not only commercially strong, but strong enough to move large numbers of players through a premium edition before launch.

The less pleasant side of the story is that locking several days of access behind a more expensive edition is once again proving effective. Players who buy the €70 standard edition have to wait, while those who pay €120 can start several days earlier. It is fair to say that the Forza Horizon 6 Premium Edition includes incentives beyond early access, but the underlying structure remains the same: the publisher separates paying players according to how much they are willing to spend at launch. Many players dislike that model, but the numbers show that it remains extremely profitable.

This is not the first example. Three years ago, the €100 Premium Edition of Starfield included five days of early access, and during that phase the game peaked at 248,632 concurrent users on Steam, with the Xbox audience still to be added on top. The same pattern appeared with Hogwarts Legacy, which reached almost 700,000 concurrent players during premium-edition early access, and it also appears every year with the latest EA Sports FC release. Community criticism has therefore not stopped the practice. Companies keep receiving evidence that a significant number of players are willing to pay extra in order to start a few days earlier.

That makes the Forza Horizon 6 record both good and bad news. It is good news for Microsoft, because the game has generated huge interest before its standard release, and it has done so through a paid premium edition. It is worse news for players, because it gives publishers another strong argument in favor of premium early access models. If buyers keep paying in such large numbers for a few days of advantage, it is difficult to imagine major companies voluntarily giving up that revenue stream.

Source: 3DJuegos