Microsoft’s Forza Horizon 5 continues to be a huge hit on PlayStation, it seems. Research from Alinea Analytics claims that the game just recently passed 5 million copies sold on PS5.
This works out to more than $300 million in revenue on PS5 alone for the 2021 game. Alinea’s Rhys Elliott said this data proves why Microsoft is keen to release more of its own games on a rival platform like Sony’s PS5. “Xbox’s move to third-party is no mystery, especially given Microsoft’s lofty profitability mandates,” Elliott said.
As Microsoft does not keep 100% of the revenue, as Sony gets a cut for its platform fee. The industry standard revenue share is 70/30.
Forza Horizon 5 has been putting up strong sales numbers on PlayStation for a while already, so to hear it’s crossed 5 million sales on PS5 is not a big surprise. The next entry in the series, Forza Horizon 6, will be released on Xbox and PC first, before coming to PS5 later on.
Forza Horizon 6, which is set in Japan, will be among the titles shown at the Xbox Developer Direct on January 22. The showcase will also include more updates on the new Fable game. Both Forza Horizon 6 and the new Fable are in development at Playground Games.
The “lofty profitability mandates” Elliott is referring to are likely the 30% profit-margin mandates that Microsoft CFO Amy Hood reportedly put upon the Xbox division. Microsoft later denied this specific figure, but acknowledged that the company does have ambitious profit goals for the Xbox team.
Whatever the case, the Xbox team undertook efforts to make more money in 2025, including raising Xbox console prices, hiking Game Pass membership costs, and releasing more of its games on rival platforms. Microsoft also laid off lots of people, canceled games, and closed studios. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said these cuts had to happen because of capitalism.
Additionally, Microsoft was planning to charge $80 for new games starting in 2025, but canceled those plans. Head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty said the Xbox team needs to run a “healthy business,” but this doesn’t necessarily mean increases beyond $70 for new games.
Microsoft will release its next quarterly financial report on January 28, at which time we may learn more about how the Xbox business is performing.
