Forza Horizon 6 Early Access Sets Records, but Is It Worth Jumping In?

Forza Horizon 6 has already turned early access into the biggest one in Forza Horizon history. Xbox executive Asha Sharma confirmed that after opening to early-access players last week, the game set a new franchise record, with its Steam concurrent player count climbing past 17.8 ten-thousand, or more than 178,000, during the premium-edition-only window. Full launch follows on May 19 for Xbox Series X|S and PC, with a PlayStation 5 version planned for later this year.

What stood out to me in those numbers was not just scale. It was what this Japan-set map seems to be doing to people. In an open-world racer, the real risk is rarely the driving. It is building a world that looks great in screenshots but gives players no reason to keep wandering once they are inside it. If Forza Horizon 6 has pushed early access to a series high, that suggests players are not just paying to start early. They are showing up for the world itself.

The critical response backs that up. As noted in the original report, Forza Horizon 6 currently holds a 92% average on Metacritic, putting it at the top of 2026’s released games and ahead of Pokopia. The praise is also unusually consistent. Most coverage points to the same three strengths: its detailed recreation of Japan, its visual presentation, and a driving feel that has clearly been polished with care. Put together, those are exactly the elements that turn a map from scenery into somewhere players actually want to explore.

Beyond the map, what matters just as much is the consistency of Playground Games. In congratulating the studio, Asha Sharma specifically highlighted how it has maintained an extremely high and remarkably steady level of quality across multiple releases. That matters in a long-running series. Open worlds often get bigger while their content starts to feel copied and pasted. The smart thing the Horizon games have managed over the years is making each stretch of road, each corner, and each new area feel like it might still have something worth seeing.

That is also why this early-access result carries real weight. Entry before launch was limited to premium-edition buyers, yet Forza Horizon 6 still surpassed 17.8 ten-thousand concurrent players on Steam. That level of heat is hard to explain away as ordinary fan pre-launch enthusiasm. Asha Sharma said outright that it became the most-played launch in the franchise’s early-access phase, and viewed within the racing genre, it does come close to the kind of unusually rare achievement she described.

If you are the kind of player who likes clearing maps and aimlessly driving through an open world, the buying advice here is simple: jump in at launch on May 19 if you can, especially on PC or Xbox Series X|S. Games like this are often at their most valuable when everyone is discovering the same map at the same time, and community routes, photo spots, and tuning discussions spread fast. If you care more about value and are not in a rush, waiting for post-launch consensus is also reasonable. PlayStation 5 players, meanwhile, will have to wait for the version coming later this year.

From the perspective of someone who is easily hooked by open worlds, the record-breaking early-access number is only the result. The more interesting signal behind it is that Forza Horizon 6 has most likely delivered another map worth driving through again and again. Racing games are often sold on speed, but what makes the Horizon series genuinely scarce is that it keeps turning “getting to the destination” into “I want to take one more detour first.” That matters more than sheer map size. It is what makes the place feel worth revisiting.