Forza Horizon 5 "largest launch" of any Microsoft game

Forza Horizon 5 is off to a great start, according to new stats released by Microsoft.

Playground Studios' excellent racer already has 4.5 million players across PC, console and cloud devices, Xbox boss Phil Spencer revealed via Twitter today.

This means Forza Horizon 5 has enjoyed the biggest launch yet of any Xbox Games Studios title - and that its concurrent player peak is triple that of Forza Horizon 4.

Of course, many of those players will be playing the game via Xbox Game Pass, where it launched day and date alongside retail copies.

But a sizable portion of players - over a million people - actually began playing yesterday. Early access was granted to those who had bought an $99 Premium Edition or had picked up the $50 Premium Add-Ons Bundle for Game Pass subscribers.

"Playground Games delivers yet another gorgeous and enveloping pocket holiday, smartly restructured but reassuringly unchanged," Oli wrote in Eurogamer's Forza Horizon 5 review. "It's a dependable joy."