'Forza Horizon 5' had the largest launch for any Xbox Game Studios title

Microsoft's game development teams are having a banner year. The company's gaming head Phil Spencer has revealed that Forza Horizon 5 had the best launch day of any Xbox Game Studios title. There have been over 4.5 million people playing the arcade racer across all platforms (Xbox, Windows and cloud) to date, and its peak concurrent players were three times those of its predecessor.

Horizon 5 is enjoyable, as you might have gathered from our hands-on, but it also helps that the game had one of Microsoft's widest releases yet. The new Forza launched simultaneously on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, the Microsoft Store on Windows and through Steam. It's much easier to pick up the game this time around, and it's a major showcase for both Microsoft's latest consoles as well as PCs with high-end video cards.

All the same, it's a significant moment for Microsoft after years of buying and fostering developers to make Xbox Game Studios a well-known brand. There's a real chance the company will eclipse itself, too, with Halo Infinite poised to launch in less than a month. It's just a question of whether or not these standout launches will translate to better Xbox sales.