The fourth installment of the Forza Horizon racing series from Playground Games after a few hours of the recall notification broke the record for the number of simultaneously active players on Steam.
As soon as the news of the download of Forza Horizon 4 appeared on the Internet, the gaming community showed unprecedented enthusiasm and interest. Within hours of the announcement, players started jumping right into the game. At the time of writing, “all-time peak” according to the SteamDB database at 71,598 concurrently active players and it is quite possible that it will continue to increase. This number completely shattered the previous record of 40,399 players, which was set just after the game's release in 2018.
This surge demonstrates the racing community's love for this title, while bringing back both old seasoned racers and newcomers who want to try the game before it disappears from the platforms for good. Interest in the game for sure 80% off on Steam helps for all editions. It is good to mention at the same time that the game will continue to be available through physical copies. However, in today's digital age, such a “sudden” disappearance of the game from the platforms naturally raises a discussion about how best to preserve the game.
Forza Horizon 4 was released in 2018 and took place in the fictional open world of Great Britain and its regions. In 2021, the sequel Forza Horizon 5 was released, which instead takes place in a fictional version of Mexico.