Surprise, everyone – Forza Horizon 6 is a hit, crossing six million players in a week if you include advanced access. Who could have guessed that Playground Games’ latest sequel, which garnered exceptional critical acclaim, whose previous titles have all done very well (over 10 million players in the first week for Forza Horizon 5), and that delivered on a long-desired setting, would achieve such heights? As much as I like to lambast Xbox for its shortcomings and poor decisions, I will admit that among its long-running franchises, Forza Horizon is one of the strongest and unquestionably the most consistent.
However, there’s always a caveat that hangs over every first-party title at Xbox, especially those that see big player numbers. It happened with Starfield, South of Midnight, and so on. I’m talking about the albatross known as Game Pass.
Which has seen price drops in the Ultimate and PC tiers, and remains one of the best subscriptions in gaming, make no mistake. But when a developer announces “players” instead of “sales,” it always gets one thinking about how financially successful a title has really been.
In Forza Horizon 6’s case, there are some other metrics we can turn to, starting with the Steam top 100 sellers. It’s consistently ranked in the top five best-selling titles globally, occasionally slipping into the number one spot despite heavy competition from Subnautica 2 and 007 First Light slowly nipping at its tyres. Last Sunday, it crossed 300,000 peak concurrent users, making it the biggest Xbox Game Studios title on Steam by a strong margin (Halo Infinite previously held the record, and that was for the free multiplayer mode’s launch).
However, that’s only part of the story and still doesn’t clue us in to the actual sales. This is where estimates from Alinea Analytics come in handy, as the firm reported 4.9 million units sold as of May 22nd – a few days after its worldwide launch. Gross revenue is apparently over $325 million, and while Steam apparently accounts for 2.8 million copies sold, Xbox makes up a healthy 2.1 million copies. It also seems that advanced access had more than its fair share of takers at about 1.7 million – a believable figure, considering that in-game leaderboards showed over 1.4 million players before Standard Edition players got in.
The really interesting part is that on top of the reported 4.9 million copies sold, there were apparently more than three million Game Pass players. This encompassed both PC and Xbox Series X/S, and right away, it seems like the service has cannibalized sales.
Xbox could look at this as a big win for Game Pass, potentially gaining several new subscribers in the process, but I think it goes a bit deeper than that. The Premium Edition Upgrade is one example – it’s essentially a Game Pass subscriber paying nearly the full price of the game to play early. And while we don’t have estimates on exactly how many took that plunge, even 50 percent of the 1.7 million figure is a pretty decent win for the model.
However, if you leave the potential revenue lost from those who experienced it through Game Pass instead of purchasing the game outright – not that there’s a guarantee they would have done so in the first place – the debate goes beyond the service’s effect on full game sales. It shows, once again, that certain titles can thrive, even when a cheaper option to play them is available.
Call it positive word of mouth and buying into the hype. Call it brand loyalty. Heck, you can even think of it in terms of those who just don’t like Game Pass and would rather purchase their games, having that peace of mind with ownership and playing on their own time. But Forza Horizon 6 proves that certain games can facilitate both “players” and “sales” for Microsoft.
We’ve seen this phenomenon before – twice, actually, in 2025. When The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered shadow-dropped and reached four million players in just three days – a testament to the power of the Game Pass model when it came to making high-profile releases so accessible. However, it was also the top-selling game in the United States for April, despite being available for about nine days, and it remained one of the year’s best-selling games.
Then there’s Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur, a game that many believed would be overshadowed by Oblivion Remastered. Not only was this not the case, but it went on to sell 8 million copies in its first year – pretty good for an independent studio with a development budget of under $10 million.
Now you could point to both releases and say they were $50, hence why so many players were encouraged to buy them outright. There’s also the fact that they’re available on PlayStation 5, which would have contributed even more to sales. But that’s the point when it comes to Forza Horizon 6. Despite costing $70 and being available on two platforms – Xbox Series X/S and PC – it’s already posting some insane numbers, official and estimated. And it’s early days yet.
I know it’s nothing as simple as “Make a good game, and it will sell well,” but even without considering the effect that Game Pass has had on a title’s sales, there’s no denying the effect it has on bringing more attention to a game that more than warrants it. Maybe they know nothing about the franchise, and this is their first entry, which actually might be the case for audiences in regions like Japan, given the setting and how well it’s recreated. Alinea seemingly supports this, noting it to be the fourth-best-selling title on Steam last week, compared to Forza Horizon 5 being eighth when it launched. After seeing so many streams and positive buzz, you probably won’t be surprised to hear it’s currently a best-seller in the region.
Maybe there are those motivated to purchase the game outright to keep playing and retain their subscription at the same time (which sounds bizarre, but I assure you – such people exist). And that Premium Edition Upgrade isn’t effectively dead in the water now that early access is over. Once the first paid expansion rolls around, those checking out the base game for the first time may be motivated to spend a little extra just to access it. So it goes.
And if all this wasn’t enough, there’s the third-party card, namely, releasing on PS5, which doesn’t have Game Pass. For every full-priced game sale lost on those that do, it’s probably making back twice that amount when Forza Horizon 6 arrives on PlayStation. After all, the previous game sold over five million copies last year on the same platform, despite originally launching in 2001. It’s almost an understatement that this will perform even better.
To that end, this isn’t about defending Game Pass or the practice of first-party Xbox titles on the surface. Rather, it’s about those titles which can deliver on both sales and players, effectively serving two masters in the process. Can every title achieve this? No, which is why it’s all the more important to celebrate those that do, especially when they’re of such a high quality. Again, not surprising, considering the Forza Horizon series and its pedigree, but it’s certainly a standout example, especially given the ongoing discussion about exclusivity at Xbox.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
