40 Million People Played Forza Horizon 5, So Why Is It Still Missing From PlayStation 5?

Aside from the PlayStation ecosystem, Forza Horizon 5 is almost everywhere. Not on Nintendo Switch, of course, but you can play it on PC, granted it runs on Windows 10/11, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and even GeForce Now. To play it on the latter streaming platform, you must own the game first, either on the PC Xbox app or Steam. It currently costs $60, but it's often discounted. The cheapest way to play it is through Game Pass. The Ultimate tier costs $20 monthly, while the PC subscription is more affordable at $12.

If you have never subscribed to this service before, you're in luck, because it's only $1 for a 14-day trial. If you do access the two-week offer, remember to cancel the subscription at some point before it expires; otherwise, you will be charged the full amount of the service you chose.

Xbox recently decided to can Forza Horizon 4, but the fifth installment is thriving. On Steam, a bit over 20,000 people played it in the past 24 hours, with an all-time peak of 81,096 when it launched. In comparison, Forza Motorsport is on life support, with barely any players. The 24-hour peak was 712, with a maximum of 4,703 at launch.

Forza Horizon 5 is one of the best racing titles from Xbox Game Studios and one of the best and most fun driving games ever made. Its only true competitor is Ubisoft's The Crew Motorfest, which Ivory Tower developed. Motorfest is a really good open-world arcade racing game, just like Forza Horizon 5. Luckily, they can peacefully coexist and offer enthusiasts options.

Since its launch in early November 2021, Horizon 5 has reigned supreme in its genre and remained unchallenged until Motorfest came along in September 2023. While Ubisoft's game still has a long way to go before it hits Horizon 5 numbers, it has one advantage over Forza: it's on PlayStation.

With nearly 60 million consoles sold as of mid-May 2024, the PlayStation 5 is brutally defeating the Xbox. In a video interview with Kinda Funny Games, even Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, admitted, "We lost the worst generation to lose in the Xbox One." He also pointed out, "We're not in the business of out-consoling Sony or out-consoling Nintendo," while adding, "There isn't really a great solution for us."

According to industry analysts, PlayStation 5 sold 4.5 million units last quarter, outselling Xbox Series X|S consoles by 5 to 1, which is unfathomable. That's one of the main reasons Xbox gave up climbing the hardware ladder and started focusing on software like Game Pass.

It's a shame they're not making PlayStation-quality first-party titles and blundered with Halo Infinite, Redfall, Forza Motorsport, Hellblade 2, and so on, but they have seen success through the likes of Starfield. This still led to four studio closures, including ones with titles they named successful, like Hi-Fi Rush.

Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, said, "To double down on these franchises and invest to build new ones requires us to look across the business to identify the opportunities best positioned for success."

After these massive failures, Xbox ported some first-party games to PlayStation 5, such as Grounded, Sea of Thieves, Hi-Fi Rush, and Pentiment. Rumors say that 1st-party flagship titles, including Forza and Halo, are also on their way to the PlayStation ecosystem.

Hopefully, their upcoming day-one Game Pass titles, such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Stalker 2, Avowed, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Doom: The Dark Ages, and so on, will make a big splash and regain the glory the company once had during the Xbox 360 era.

According to industry sources, Forza Horizon 5 saw 4.5 million players on launch day alone. It hit 10 million in a week, 15 million in two months, 20 million in seven months, 30 million in 18 months, and 37 million in two years and three months in February 2024.

So, with over 40,000,000 players worldwide, the only sensible questions remain: When will Forza Horizon 5 come to PlayStation, and what others will follow? You can imagine that Xbox won't put out just one title at a time, but they will come in waves like the previous four games.

At the end of May 2024, a Sony report showed there were 97 million monthly active users on PlayStation 5 and PS4 combined. The console users were split down the middle, with 49 million per console generation. Thus, another vital question arises: Will Xbox skip the chance to capitalize on such a huge market with roughly 50 million active PS4 players out in the wild? Or will the game simply come out on PS5 alone?

Hopefully, all of these questions will be answered in 2024, along with the release of the titles themselves. The PlayStation ecosystem will explode in the best possible way when Forza Horizon 5, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Halo Infinite, the Gears of War franchise, Starfield, and other previously-exclusive Xbox games arrive. Not to mention the upcoming ones, including Perfect Dark, State of Decay 3, South of Midnight, and so on.