- Forza Horizon 6 has launched to over 170K concurrent Steam players in early access.
- The game has beaten Forza Horizon 5’s player count by over 2x, and it has also become Steam’s biggest racing title.
- This accolade puts the game ahead of the likes of Need for Speed Heat, F1 2015, etc.
Forza Horizon 6 became the best-rated game of 2026 immediately after its critic reviews went live. This reception set the racing title up for success, and this success is now immediately visible in the Steam player counts.
Over on Steam, Forza Horizon 6 has already sped past its predecessors in early access when looking at the concurrent player numbers. In fact, the game has also earned a huge milestone on the platform.
Why it matters: Playground Games’ latest release is shaping up to be a much bigger deal than any of its past titles, potentially setting the stage for a new era of popularity for the series.

At the time of writing, Forza Horizon 6 has been out for nearly a full day. In the time after its release, the game has managed to garner a strong player base, peaking at 172,093 concurrent players on Steam.
Since Forza Horizon 6 has yet to launch for every player out there, this figure could rise further in the coming days. However, the game has already made a big record with its current peak concurrent player count.
Forza Horizon 6 has now become the biggest racing game on Steam. When checking the “Racing” tag on SteamDB, the game is second only to GTA 5. Despite the prevalence of driving and racing in Rockstar Games’ title, GTA 5 is still not necessarily a racing game in the traditional sense.
As such, Forza Horizon 6 is now Steam’s #1 racing game by concurrent player counts, besting the likes of F1 2015, Need for Speed Heat, and Forza Horizon 5.

As for the Forza Horizon 5 comparisons, Playground Games’ previous arcade racer peaked at just over 80K concurrent players several years ago. Therefore, the title is already outpacing its predecessor by a huge margin in early access.
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[Senior News Reporter]
Avinash is currently pursuing a Business degree in Australia. For more than 5 years, he has been working as a gaming journalist, utilizing his writing skills and love for gaming to report on the latest updates in the industry. Avinash loves to play action games like Devil May Cry and has also been mentioned on highly regarded websites, such as IGN, GamesRadar, GameRant, Dualshockers, CBR, and Gamespot.


