Forza Horizon 6 early access release is a huge hit and could change how games are sold

Forza Horizon 6just had a massive launch weekend — and, technically, it isn't even out yet. Playable via its Premium Edition since Friday, May 15, ahead of its official release date on Tuesday, May 19, Playground Games' racing sequel has racked up impressive player numbers already. Some have speculated that it has raked in over $140 million in revenue during this early access period; that's not accurate. But this is still a huge success that could change how games are sold in future.

The numbers posted by the game over the weekend would be respectable for a full launch. On Steam, Forza Horizon 6 saw a peak of more than 180,000 players online on Sunday. This is well inside the top 10 for the platform this weekend, and more than double the lifetime peak of Forza Horizon 5, which topped out at 81,000 concurrent Steam players at launch.

Steam is only one of the places you can play Forza Horizon 6 right now. It's also available on Xbox, of course, and the PC version can be bought and accessed via the Microsoft Store and Xbox app. Those platforms don't share detailed player data like Steam does, but thanks to Forza Horizon 6's own stat tracking, it's possible to get a sense of how big the game's early access audience really is: at least 1.5 million players.

There's a speed trap — a world activity in which you aim to hit an MPH target on a specific road — unlocked at the start of the game that technically isn't compulsory, but you would really have to go out of your way to avoid it. Like all Forza Horizon speed traps, it logs the speed of every single player that passes through it. On Saturday, a member of the DayOne community spotted that leaderboards for this trap — the River Split Speed Trap — showed 1.2 million players had logged a time. I just checked again; as of this writing, on Monday, the number stands at 1,522,434 players.

What's astonishing about this is that the Premium Edition of Forza Horizon 6 costs $120. This is where the $140 million figure comes from: multiplying $120 by DayOne's figure of 1.2 million. According to my updated figure, it would actually be more than $180 million. But it's not that simple.

Forza Horizon 6, like all first-party Xbox Game Studios games, is available from day one on Game Pass Ultimate. Game Pass subscribers who want in on early access can get it by buying a Premium Upgrade DLC pack for $60. And anyone tempted by the game's launch to sign up to Game Pass could get one month of Ultimate plus a Premium Upgrade for a total of $83. I wouldn't be surprised if $60 Premium Upgrade sales to subscribers accounted for a healthy proportion of those 1.5 million players, so the total revenue figure is probably a good deal lower than $140 million.

That doesn't mean this early-access launch isn't a huge success though; quite the opposite. It proves a business model for Microsoft, and could be influential on other launch strategies outside of Game Pass, too.

There have been big early access launches of this kind before. Some were arguably much bigger. In 2023, Hogwarts Legacy saw a Steam peak player count of more than 470,000 during its early access period. Later that same year, Diablo 4 was available early for four days (though not yet on Steam). Developer Blizzard didn't provide any hard numbers on the early access, but boasted that Diablo 4 had already become the studio's fastest-selling game of all time, and that early-access players had racked up 93 million hours of playtime before the game's official launch.

But Hogwarts Legacy offered early access with its Deluxe Edition, which cost $80, just $10 more expensive than the standard game. Diablo 4 players could unlock early access through both the Deluxe and Ultimate editions of the game, priced at $90 and $100 respectively — a $20/$30 premium.

The Premium Edition of Forza Horizon 6 is a full $50 more than the Standard Edition (and, as I noted, costs $60 to Game Pass subscribers). That's a huge differential, but millions of fans seem willing to pay it.

Image: Playground Games/Xbox Game Studios

Microsoft's retail strategy with Forza Horizon 6 is to concentrate all the value in the top-tier edition. (This is what the company does with Game Pass Ultimate, too.) The Deluxe version of the game costs $100 and includes a Car Pass (basically a subscription to car DLC) plus a Welcome Pack of extra cars. It's not great value, but that's the point — it exists to make the Premium Edition look better. For just $20 more, the Premium Edition adds VIP Membership (in-game boosts and exclusive items), two additional car packs, two future expansions to the game, and the all-important early access period.

So it's a lot of money, but it's also structured to look like a tempting deal, even to Game Pass subscribers. It's a time-honored but effective upselling tactic. For Microsoft, it's a great way to bring in extra revenue from Game Pass subscribers. Early access is a vital part of that, because it's of value at launch, when players are most excited — rather than counting on them engaging with DLC further down the line.

I'd expect to see other publishers copying Microsoft and limiting early access to their priciest, top-tier editions in future. (Earlier this year, another Microsoft release, World of Warcraft expansion Midnight, limited early access to its $90 Epic tier.) The retail logic is simple. It's clear people want it, and it's clear they're willing to pay.