Forza Horizon 6 surges to 3.8 million in its first week

Forza Horizon 6 launched yesterday and immediately looked like a hit. In-game stats show more than 3.8 million players already, with over 1 million new accounts created on day one. On Steam, the game peaked at 273,148 concurrent players, and that surge pushed Microsoft servers into overload on the night of May 19.

That is the kind of opening publishers want. 3.8 million players and 1 million new accounts are not the sort of numbers you manufacture with hype alone, and the server strain makes sense in that context. The Steam peak also matters because it suggests this is not just longtime fans coming back; plenty of new players showed up too. The launch momentum is real.

The problems arrived just as quickly. On the night of May 19, heavy traffic caused a Microsoft server outage that slowed vehicle livery loading, blocked access to multiplayer co-op events, and broke both the auction house and leaderboards. Anyone who has seen a big launch go sideways will recognize the pattern: everyone tries to jump in at once, and the waiting screens pile up before the cars even do. The support team confirmed the issue a few hours later, and by the morning of May 20, service had been mostly restored.

From a player’s point of view, that is hardly a pleasant first impression. You buy in, you are ready to get on track, and the server is the first thing that goes down. Still, there is another way to read it: if a game can overload the servers on day one, its launch is clearly strong. This is not the kind of loud but empty release that only looks busy in marketing copy. Forza Horizon 6 is already available on PC and Xbox, and anyone who wanted to ride the launch wave could do so right away.

PS5 players will have to wait longer. The official timeline says the PS5 version is expected to arrive at the end of 2026. For now, the rollout is straightforward: PC and Xbox get the first surge, while everyone else waits on the sidelines. If you want to play with friends and catch the launch buzz, now is the time. If you only play on PS5, there is no reason to keep refreshing the news feed just yet.