As per a tweet by Phil Spencer Forza Horizon 5, which is available now across PC and Xbox consoles (including Xbox Game Pass), is the most successful Xbox Game Studios launch to date. With over 4.5 million players and counting it's a testament to the brilliance of what developer Playground Games has done.

We've invested for years in Xbox so more people can play. With 4.5+ million players so far across PC, cloud & console, Forza Horizon 5 shows that promise coming to life. Largest launch day for XGS game, peak concurrent 3x FH4 high. Thank you players & congrats to @WeArePlayground

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) November 10, 2021

As per our full review.

Forza Horizon 5’s digital Mexico is not only expansive, but stunning in its sheer beauty, diversity, and scope. You can drive anywhere, on-road and off, and drive with others convoy-style via seamless co-op. For the simple pleasure that is driving, Forza Horizon 5 nails it.

As the latest and greatest entry in the series to date we also had the chance to sit down with Playground Games ahead of the launch to talk about the series' evolution and what it took to create such a stunning open-world.

“Right from the very start of development, one of our goals was to make the biggest and best Horizon game yet,” Mike Brown, Creative Director at Playground Games says. Forza Horizon 5 is the latest entry in the critically acclaimed and popular open-world racing series, and with its digital representation of Mexico it’s also the most ambitious Forza to date.

Outside of overhauling and improving how each of the 500-plus real-world vehicles looks and handles, it’s the first Horizon to take advantage of Xbox Series X and S hardware. Not to mention the latest in PC graphics technology from NVIDIA and AMD. And with that it pushes the size and scope of what an open-world racer can be.

“From a design side, when you're building an open-world that you want people to spend time in and to explore there's real challenges,” Mike continues. “You can't just make a space 50% bigger and be like, great, player’s are going to love it. You have to make sure that there's a good reason for the size. That there's always new things to see, new areas to explore, and that it isn’t a case of, for lack of a better term, copy-pasted areas.”

Be sure to check out the full massive interview here.