Forza Horizon 6 review: is it the best racing game ever made?

Forza Horizon 6 is the best open-world racing game of 2026. It is not the best racing simulator, and it does not try to be. A 91 Metacritic score, a 302,645 concurrent Steam peak, and a Japan map fans had asked for since FH4 all point to the same verdict: Playground Games built the most complete Horizon game yet.

That is also the limit of the case. Critics, Reddit, and players agree FH6 refines the formula instead of reinventing it. Here is what they say, what the numbers prove, and where FH6 lands in the long debate over the best racing game ever made.

🔑 The short answer

For most players, the honest answer is narrower than the headline.

FH6 is not the deepest racing simulator, and it does not try to be. It is not Assetto Corsa with a festival budget or iRacing with a Tokyo postcard filter.

But as an open-world racing game, FH6 makes a much stronger case. The 91 Metacritic score, the Steam peak, the Japan map, and the community reaction all point at the same thing: Playground Games built the most complete Horizon game yet.

It is familiar. It plays safe in places. It also gives players the Japan-based Horizon they have been asking for since the series found its identity.

The community verdict sits right there, between comfort and fatigue.

🏆 FH6 lands a 91 on Metacritic — here is what that means

Forza Horizon 6 has a 91 Metacritic score during launch week reporting. That puts FH6 among 2026's highest-rated games, just shy of the 92 Metacritic peak set by Forza Horizon 4 and Forza Horizon 5.

The score matters because Horizon already reviews well. Playground Games is not rescuing a weak series. It is trying to make one of Xbox's most dependable first-party franchises feel fresh again.

The official Xbox page sets the factual base: Forza Horizon 6 launched on May 19, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC, takes place in Japan, includes more than 550 real-world cars, and adds Tokyo, Touge Battles, Car Meets, co-op LINK skills, EventLab upgrades, and Xbox Play Anywhere support.

Metacritic shows critics still believe in the formula. SteamDB shows players showed up for it.

A 91 does not settle the "best racing game ever" debate. Review aggregators compress different jobs into one number. A 91 for an RPG, a survival horror game, and an open-world racer does not mean each game succeeded in the same way.

FH6 has one main job: make driving through Japan feel good enough that players accept the Horizon loop again.

On that test, the score makes sense.

📰 What do critics say about Forza Horizon 6?

Critics keep returning to the same strengths: Japan, visual polish, and a map packed with things to do.

GamesRadar calls the racing engine sublime but says FH6 can sometimes feel a bit too safe. PC Gamer lands on a similar trade-off: FH6 follows a "well-worn track," but the world, cars, and events keep giving players excuses to drive.

IGN's Luke Reilly gave FH6 a perfect 10/10, calling it a high-water mark for open-world racing. Red Bull's review focuses on variety, especially rally routes, drift events, Touge roads, and the activity spread. Car and Driver reads it through car culture and says the game understands why players want to do reckless things with serious cars.

GTPlanet is useful because it is less dazzled. The review says FH6 is still very much a Horizon game, with messages, rewards, map icons, and constant stimulation. It also credits Playground Games for the graphics, audio, UI, customization, and long-awaited Japan setting.

The critic consensus is not complicated:

FH6 does not reinvent open-world racing. It refines the version of open-world racing that already works at scale.

Watch IGN’s full Forza Horizon 6 video review:

💬 What is the Forza Horizon 6 community saying?

The Forza Horizon 6 community verdict is positive overall, but players argue more than critics do.

On Reddit, the positive side is easy to find. The r/gaming review thread collected launch reviews with OpenCritic scores around the low 90s and a 100% recommendation rate in the thread summary. Another r/ForzaHorizon post focused on FH6 becoming one of the year's highest-rated Metacritic games.

The r/gaming "Forza Horizon 6 goes crazy" thread is more chaotic in a useful way: players react to clips, visuals, traffic, handling, and the spectacle of Japan.

Community praise tends to land on six things:

• Japan gives the series a setting fans had asked for.
• Tokyo gives FH6 a proper centerpiece city.
• Touge roads finally put the mountain-pass fantasy in the center of Horizon.
• The car list gives collectors a lot to chase.
• The visual fidelity sells both the festival and the road-trip fantasy.
• Japanese car culture makes Horizon's festival identity feel less generic.

Reddit is not giving FH6 a free pass. The same threads criticize the familiar structure, sparse Tokyo traffic, wheel handling, and the usual Horizon reward flood. JDM collectors who do not want to wait through the unlock economy reach for FH6 Modded Accounts to skip straight to the rare cars. Some players think the series has become too predictable and too afraid to make progression feel earned.

That formula-fatigue criticism is not review bombing. It is what happens when a series becomes this consistent.

Players are no longer asking whether Horizon works. They are asking whether it can still surprise them.

Here is the official Initial Drive gameplay that drew most of the early reactions:

🤔 The "same game in Japan" criticism is fair — but it misses the point

The "same game in Japan" criticism is fair. FH6 keeps the open-world festival structure and moves it to a stronger setting.

It is still Forza Horizon: drive, unlock events, earn cars, trigger wheelspins, smash scenery, collect rewards, tune builds, drift badly, drift beautifully, and watch the map fill with icons.

FH6 is not trying to be a hardcore sim. It does not punish sloppy braking lines or turn a 40-minute race into a tire-management exam.

GamesRadar's review is helpful here because it praises the engine and world while calling out bland racing, flimsy scenery, and shallow story elements. Car and Driver also flags sparse traffic, familiar customization limits, and older engine behavior.

That distinction matters. If a player cares most about force feedback, racecraft, tire model fidelity, pit strategy, or wheel behavior, FH6 is not the answer.

FH6 is an open-world driving fantasy built around flow, collecting, spectacle, and accessibility.

The better question is whether any other open-world racer matches FH6's mix of map design, car collecting, approachability, spectacle, and scale.

In 2026, that is a hard argument to win against FH6.

👥 How many people are playing Forza Horizon 6?

SteamDB lists FH6 with a 302,645 all-time Steam peak on May 24, 2026. PC Gamer reported the same surge after the game moved past 300,000 concurrent Steam players and entered Steam's top five most-played games at the time.

The 302,645 Steam peak is the current public number to use.

The earlier 172,093 early-access peak was real, but it is now outdated. Full launch pushed FH6 much higher.

Steam does not count the full audience. SteamDB excludes Xbox Series X|S, Microsoft Store PC, cloud, and Game Pass players. GamesRadar, citing Alinea Analytics, reported 4.9 million copies sold plus more than 3 million subscription players.

Player count is not quality. Bad games can open big. Overhyped games can open big.

Player count, critic scores, and nonstop community discussion send a stronger signal together. FH6 is not a niche critical favorite. It is the mainstream racing game of the moment, and the players catching up fast usually do it with a stack of FH6 Super Wheelspins instead of grinding solo.

⚖ FH6 is better than FH5 — Japan gives Horizon a soul

For most open-world racing players, Forza Horizon 6 is better than Forza Horizon 5 because Japan gives the series a clearer identity and a more requested driving fantasy.

FH5 was large, polished, and commercially huge, but Mexico became divisive over time. Some players loved the openness. Others found the map too flat, too brown, or too empty between landmarks after the first-season rush faded.

Japan gives FH6 a sharper identity.

Tokyo streets, mountain roads, coastal routes, bamboo forests, snow regions, car meets, and JDM culture all fit the car-festival fantasy.

FH5 had scale. FH6 has mood.

The FH6 progression structure also seems to land better. Reviewers point to clearer goals, better onboarding, a cleaner UI, and a world that feels more deliberately authored. GTPlanet notes that the game still behaves like Horizon, but the graphics, audio, UI, garage customization, and Estate features move the formula forward. For collectors building a JDM garage fast, FH6 Super Wheelspins shortcut the unlock cycle that defined FH5 grinding.

FH5 is not obsolete. If you loved Mexico and mostly wanted more cars, FH6 may feel like a pricey map-and-polish upgrade. If you wanted Horizon to feel fresh again, Japan is the strongest argument Playground Games could make.

💰 FH6 is worth buying in 2026 — if you want spectacle over simulation

Forza Horizon 6 is worth buying in 2026 if you want a gorgeous, accessible open-world racing game with hundreds of cars, fast rewards, and a Japan map built for casual cruising as much as competitive racing.

Buy FH6 if you care about:

• Open-world exploration.
• JDM cars and Japanese car culture.
• Touge routes, drift builds, and Tokyo driving.
• Solo progression with frequent rewards.
• Multiplayer car meets and co-op activities.
• A polished racing game that does not ask you to study motorsport first.

Wait if you care about:

• Serious sim physics.
• Dense city traffic.
• Deep motorsport structure.
• A fully new game design.
• Wheel-first handling.
• Slower, tougher progression.

The progression point matters. FH6 is generous by design. Some players read that as comfort. Others read it as the reason Horizon has lost tension.

Both reactions make sense. They come from players who want different racing games.

🏎 FH6 isn't the best racing game ever — but it's the best open-world racer in 2026

Forza Horizon 6 is not the best racing game ever made for every kind of racing fan.

It is not the best fit if you live for Gran Turismo's license tests, Assetto Corsa's tire model, iRacing's racecraft, Dirt Rally's punishment, or Need for Speed's police-chase fantasy.

It does have a serious claim as the best open-world racing game available in 2026.

That category distinction matters.

Open-world racing is not about one perfect lap. It is about the road to the event, the car you build for no good reason, the shortcut through a forest, the mountain pass you repeat because the corners feel right, and the moment you stop chasing the map icon and just drive.

FH6 wins inside that frame.

Japan gives the series the cultural and geographic identity fans have wanted for years. The visuals sell the fantasy. The player count proves demand. The review scores show execution. The Reddit criticism keeps the hype honest.

The community verdict is straightforward:

Forza Horizon 6 is not a revolution.

It is not flawless.

It is not the final word in racing games.

But in 2026, if someone asks for the most complete, polished, and broadly enjoyable open-world racing game they can play right now, FH6 is the answer.

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ℹ️ Forza Horizon 6 FAQ

When does the PlayStation 5 version of Forza Horizon 6 release?

Microsoft has confirmed a PlayStation 5 version of Forza Horizon 6 for later in 2026 but has not announced a specific date. Premium Edition early access on Xbox and PC began May 15, 2026; the standard release landed May 19, 2026. PS5 timing and feature parity are still pending official word from Playground Games.

Is Forza Horizon 6 on Game Pass?

Yes. Forza Horizon 6 is a Microsoft-published first-party title and is included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass on launch day.

Does Forza Horizon 6 support wheels and force feedback?

FH6 supports racing wheels, but the handling is tuned for controller-first arcade play. Sim wheel users typically report that FH6 feels closer to Forza Horizon than to a dedicated racing simulator.

How big is the Forza Horizon 6 map compared to FH5?

FH6 is roughly comparable in surface area to FH5, but Playground Games packed the Japan map with denser road networks, urban districts in Tokyo, and verticality from mountain Touge routes. Effective driving variety is higher than the raw area suggests.