Forza Horizon 6 hit 172,093 concurrent players on Steam on May 15, 2026 – and that’s before a single standard-edition buyer could log in. Per SteamDB, that all-time peak placed the game at #12 in daily active users and #2 in Steam’s top sellers chart at the time, with over 120,000 players active in a single snapshot. The kicker: every one of those players paid $119.99 / £110 for the Premium Edition – or bought a Game Pass Premium Upgrade – just to get in early. The full launch hasn’t happened yet.
For context, Forza Horizon 5 peaked at 81,096 concurrent players across its entire Steam lifetime after launching in 2021 – a number FH6 more than doubled before its gates were even fully open, as reported by GamingBolt. Playground Games and Microsoft clearly made a deliberate push on Steam this cycle – preorders reportedly topped 500,000 copies and climbed to #1 on Steam’s global top-sellers chart before launch day, per BigGo Finance. As we covered when a 155GB SteamDB update signalled the game’s imminent arrival, the momentum on PC had been building for weeks. According to GamesRadar, the early-access peak already outperformed other highly-rated 2026 releases including Resident Evil Requiem and Mewgenics – and those games didn’t charge a premium for the privilege of getting in first.
Honestly, the number that matters most here isn’t 172,093 – it’s what that figure represents as a floor. Every concurrent player counted in that peak paid a significant premium to access a game that isn’t even fully out yet. Windows Central notes the data doesn’t account for Xbox console players or Microsoft Store buyers at all, meaning the actual total audience is substantially larger than anything SteamDB can show. Racing games have historically struggled to headline platform stats the way shooters and RPGs do – the fact that FH6 is trading punches with the biggest releases of 2026 on Steam alone is a genuine statement about where the Horizon series sits right now. For comparison, Subnautica 2 sold over a million copies in under two hours earlier this year – that’s the tier of launch FH6 is now being mentioned alongside.
Watch for whether the May 19 full launch – opening access to standard-edition buyers and the broader Game Pass audience – drives a second concurrent spike that clears the 200,000 mark on Steam. That would put Forza Horizon 6 firmly among Microsoft‘s biggest-ever PC launches, and would give Playground Games a compelling data point heading into whatever post-launch content roadmap they’re planning to announce. The first seasonal festival playlist will also be one to watch – historically, that’s where long-term engagement either locks in or quietly starts to drift.
Did you pay for early access, or are you holding out for the full May 19 launch? And does Forza Horizon 6‘s premium early-access model feel like good value, or a worrying sign of where game pricing is heading? Sound off in the comments below, and keep your eyes on GameLuster for more Forza Horizon 6 coverage.
