172,093 concurrent players on Steam — and the game doesn’t officially launch until May 19. That’s the number Forza Horizon 6 pulled during its Premium Edition early access window, more than double the all-time Steam peak of its predecessor. Forza Horizon 5 managed roughly 80,000 concurrent players at its November 2021 launch, according to SteamDB data cited by IGN.

The open-world racer currently sits at #1 on Steam’s Top Sellers chart with a “Very Positive” rating: 85% positive across 5,970 reviews. On the critical side, it’s performing even better. IGN handed it a perfect 10/10, calling it “a gundamn masterpiece.” Metacritic pegs it at 91 out of 100 — the highest-reviewed game of 2026 so far, clearing Pokémon Pokopia and Resident Evil Requiem, both at 89, according to the BBC.

Japan Was Worth the Wait

Six mainline entries in, and the Forza Horizon series had somehow never visited Japan — a country whose car culture is among the most recognizable on the planet. Playground Games clearly felt the weight of that expectation, because multiple critics are calling the resulting map the best in franchise history.

The setting compresses Tokyo into a meaningful metropolitan area and surrounds it with farmland, forests, mountain passes, and the Japan Alps. IGN noted the map goes “beyond just being the biggest or the most beautiful,” adding that it’s also the most credible and car-friendly in the series. Top Gear noted that the wait allowed Playground to build Tokyo as an actual city rather than “a handful of streets.” Video Games Chronicle’s Chris Scullion, in a five-star review, called it “one of the best racing titles ever made.”

The setting also enables thematically appropriate events: Touge races winding through mountain roads, drift-friendly city streets, and a Showcase event that pits players against a four-storey mech stomping toward Tokyo — which IGN called “possibly the wildest Showcase in the series to date.”

What Players Are Responding To

Steam reviews paint a clear picture of what’s landing. The top-rated player review, from someone with 14.2 hours logged, reads: “I have played FH from the very first, this has taken the cake for me. better customization and the long waited window decals. Runs perfectly smooth on med-high for me.”

Window decals. It sounds small, but anyone who has spent time in Forza’s livery editor knows this has been a community request for years. The ability to place decals on glass is the kind of granular, listening-to-your-fans improvement that signals a studio paying attention.

Other top reviews are less verbose. “Welcome to the Rice Fields, Motherfu*ker!” reads one 14.7-hour review, because of course it does. Another simply states: “beats mexico.”

Performance comes up repeatedly in positive reviews, with multiple players reporting smooth framerates on mid-range hardware. IGN noted “zero crashes and no stuttering, ever” — a meaningful claim for a series that has not always delivered clean PC launches.

The 15% Problem

An 85% positive rating is strong, but it’s not unanimous. 908 negative reviews out of 5,970 total means roughly one in seven players came away unhappy.

The loudest complaint, echoed by critics and players alike, is the trimmed car list. Forza Horizon 6 launches with around 550 vehicles — a sharp reduction from the 799 that Forza Horizon 5 accumulated over years of post-release updates. Top Gear said the car list had been “hacked back too aggressively,” noting that longtime players will immediately notice favorites missing from the garage. Some will return through weekly events, but the day-one selection has clearly frustrated returning players.

The new progression system also draws criticism. Beyond a certain point, advancing through the campaign requires completing ambient challenges — speed traps, danger signs, drift zones. For players who want to mainline the racing content, that mandatory detour feels like padding.

The structural critique: Forza Horizon 6 is iterative, not revolutionary. The handling is familiar, the core loop the same class-based racing the series has run on for over a decade. When the execution is this polished, most players won’t care. But anyone waiting for a fundamental rethink isn’t getting one.

Xbox Needed This One

For Microsoft’s gaming division, the timing couldn’t be better. Xbox has absorbed criticism over layoffs, console and Game Pass price hikes, and a Call of Duty entry that underperformed last year after poor reviews, as reported by the BBC. A 91 Metacritic average and a Steam chart-topper is precisely the kind of win the brand needed.

Forza Horizon 6 is confirmed for PlayStation 5 later this year — a move reflecting new Xbox boss Asha Sharma’s willingness to break from the company’s historical exclusivity stance, and one that could push the game’s player base well beyond its Steam numbers.

Forza Horizon 6 is the rare sequel that refines without overreaching — proven formula, long-overdue setting, and polish across nearly every surface. The car list is thin, the progression has padding, and 15% of Steam reviewers aren’t sold. But when critics and players agree this is the series at its peak, the numbers don’t lie.

Sources