Forza Horizon 6 is already the biggest Forza Horizon game on Steam by concurrent players, and it has done it before the standard launch crowd arrives.
SteamDB lists Forza Horizon 6 with a peak of 178,009 concurrent players during early access. That more than doubles Forza Horizon 5's 81,096-player Steam peak, giving Playground Games' Japan-set racer a new series record on Valve's storefront while access is still limited to Premium buyers and Premium Upgrade owners.
Steam demand is high before the May 19 launch
The timing makes the number stand out. Playground's early access rollout began on Steam at 4:01am UTC on May 15 for the Premium Edition and Premium Upgrade. The standard edition launches on May 19, when Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass members can also begin playing without buying the Premium Upgrade.
That means the current Steam peak does not yet include the full base-game audience. It also does not count players on Xbox consoles or the Xbox app on PC, so the public Steam number is only one slice of the launch audience.
The result is a strong opening for a game that had already built momentum before release. OpenCritic currently shows Forza Horizon 6 at a 91 Top Critic Average across 104 critic reviews, with the site listing it in its 2026 Hall of Fame. The Steam store page describes the sequel as Playground's largest open-world driving adventure yet, with Japan, Tokyo City, more than 550 real-world cars, EventLab upgrades and co-op play across the campaign.
Forza Horizon 6 has been one of Xbox's largest 2026 releases, and the early Steam record gives the launch a clear commercial signal before the wider rollout. It also lands after a busy pre-release week for the game, including Playground's Series 1 reward-car reveal and the start of Forza Horizon 6 early access on Xbox and PC.
Playground has also said the PlayStation 5 version remains planned for later in 2026, with wishlisting already open on the PlayStation Store. For now, the next test for the Steam record is simple: whether the May 19 launch pushes Forza Horizon 6 even higher once standard edition players and Game Pass users join the Horizon Festival in Japan.