Forza Horizon 6 beats Steam record early access

Forza Horizon 6’s early access surge

Forza Horizon 6 has already reset the bar for the series on Steam by surpassing its predecessor’s all-time peak in an early-access window.

According to the report, Forza Horizon 6 hit an all-time Steam record of about 130,000 concurrent players—but that figure is limited to users who are willing to pay for early access. Forza Horizon 5’s comparable benchmark was 81,096 concurrent players, recorded in 2021.

Why this matters

This is significant for two reasons:

• Momentum signal before wider reach: Concurrency is a fast way to measure real demand, and the fact that the number is already record-setting while the game is still gated behind paid early access suggests strong conversion from interest into active play.
• Platform performance perception: Steam concurrency figures tend to influence how players and industry watchers view a game’s health, especially for major PC releases.

What to watch next

The key follow-up will be whether the concurrency stays elevated when the game expands beyond early access and beyond the audience that paid the entry price. If Forza Horizon 6 can maintain high numbers even as the player base broadens, it would indicate the launch is not just early-adopter-driven.

Overall, Forza Horizon 6’s immediate success on Steam provides a clear early indicator that Playground’s open-world racing formula is continuing to draw large crowds on PC—at least strongly enough to outperform Forza Horizon 5’s historic peak by a wide margin.