Forza Horizon 5 celebrated the biggest launch in the entire 20-year history of the Xbox, and the racing title continues to speed its way into the record books. With five million players on its first day and ten million within 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 current Forza 5 playerbase at 15,009,018. Reaching this figure in only 65 days equates to an average of over 230,000 daily.
It’s unclear how many of these players purchased the game outright, 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 only $1. Many early Forza Horizon 5 players purchased the Premium Edition of the game, however, allowing them to enter Early Access between November 5 and 9. To compare the fifth entry’s massive success with the previous title, Forza Horizon 4 reached a total of 12 million players in its first year. In November 2020, Microsoft stated that 24 million people played the game within 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 brand-new cards in the newest updates. Last week, Microsoft announced that the co-founder of Playground Games and industry veteran Gavin Raeburn had left the company. He was replaced by fellow co-founder Trevor Williams.
Forza Horizon 5 is available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The title celebrated the largest first week in both Xbox and Game Pass history, attracting over 4.5 million players in its first seven days. The first of two expansion packs is expected to release in June 2022.
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