The Arcade Racer That's Suddenly Tearing It Up On Steam
Following Forza Horizon 4's March 9, 2021 release on the Steam, the arcade racer jumped onto the Top Sellers list in just a few hours. It's now one of Steam's hottest racing games of all time, thanks to tens of thousands of players who made it happen.
According to VG247, "this is among the largest concurrent player counts ever for a racing [game] on Steam, beating out long-running series like Need for Speed, The Crew, and Project Cars."
While Forza Horizon 4 made an impact, it's still outpaced by Dirt 3, Dirt Rally, and Codemasters F1. To take the crown from Dirt 3, Forza Horizon 4 will have to exceed 40,832 concurrent players. Though Forza Horizon 4 achieved an impressive 14,609 players within its first few hours and it boasts over 20,000 as of March 12, according to direct data from Steam, there's still a ways to go before it breaks the standing record held by Dirt 3.
In a celebratory tweet shared on March 10, the official Forza Horizon account expressed gratitude for what players were able to accomplish: "Leave it to the Forza community to blow us away once again. Within our first 24 hours on Steam we are one of the most-played racing franchises on the platform. THANK YOU!"
Full Steam ahead
The success of the Forza Horizon 4 Steam launch is no surprise, given the popularity of this franchise and the fact that no games from it had been on Steam until now. Forza Horizon 4 was easily one of the best games of 2018, and its reputation has only grown since then.
Considering the game originally dropped in 2018 for Xbox One and Windows PC, its stellar performance right out of the gate may be a strong sign for the future of racing games on Steam, as well as the growing trend of PC ports for Xbox games. PlayStation is on the same bandwagon, with credible leaks pointing to popular titles getting PC ports. Steam is the perfect place for games to grow their audiences, whether they're major titles or hidden gems.
Fan reactions to the Steam port have been mostly positive, with several users happy to finally take the game for a spin on PC. In the coming days, all eyes will be on Forza Horizon 4 concurrent player numbers to see just how revved up gamers are for this groundbreaking racer.