Forza Horizon 5 sold 5 million copies on PS5 — proving at least for live service the move away from exclusives makes sense

The numbers are in, and Microsoft's experimental and... controversial (to say the least) 'Project Latitude' — the initiative to bring first-party Xbox titles to rival platforms — seems to have found its clear success story.

According to a recent update on the website of co-developer Virtuo, the open-world racing game Forza Horizon 5 has surpassed a whopping 5 million copies sold on PlayStation 5.

This milestone, first spotted by industry trackers like HazzadorGamin represents quite an impressive achievement for a title that spent four years as a flagship Xbox exclusive. Since its PS5 debut in April 2025, the game has reportedly generated over $300 million in revenue. Proving that there is an appetite for Xbox games on Sony's hardware.

A mixed bag of success for Xbox

Virtuos say in their success story piece that "Forza Horizon 5 was one of the best-selling titles on PlayStation 5 in 2025, surpassing 5 million copies sold on the platform and earning widespread acclaim with a 92 Metacritic score."

While the Forza numbers are encouraging, the performance of Xbox's wider catalog on PlayStation is still under the microscope, and not all of it has been good news. Forza Horizon 5 leads the pack at 5 million sales, followed closely by Sea of Thieves, which has maintained a strong presence with roughly 1.8 million copies sold on PS5 at last count.

On the other hand, Starfield has had a middling start on the platform, with recent reports estimating just 140,000 copies sold in its first week on PS5. Analysts suggest the delay between the original launch and the port may have quelled the appetite for it, but also, it's clear from the pattern here that multiplayer and/or live service games are the play and make sense to go to as many platforms as possible.

Gears of War: Reloaded and Indiana Jones seem to sit somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. The former hit 1 million players, and Indiana Jones sold much faster on PS5 than on Xbox (but has Xbox Game Pass to thank for that).

Exclusive or everywhere?

Xbox under Asha Sharma's reign has been making a number of positive changes recently; the price drop to Xbox Game Pass, the return of Xbox Fanfest and the shot through the heart to the unpopular 'This is an Xbox' marketing.'

With this new era comes renewed interest in the conversation around exclusives, as fans have been interpreting some of Sharma's recent quotes to indicate a return to this for first-party titles: "The plan is the plan until it's not the plan."

The community has been divided on whether the move to multi-platform will erode the value of Xbox hardware, but the financial reality, at least in the case of Forza Horizon 5, is hard to ignore.

The success of Forza suggests that at least for the right title, the PlayStation audience is willing to pay and Microsoft won't want to leave that money on the table. Even if it means continuing to weather the storm of a frustrated fan base who want to see some reciprocation from PlayStation (Helldivers 2 alone isn't going to cut it!)

Forza Horizon 6 arrives on Xbox May 19. 2026 as confirmed in the January Xbox Developer Direct, but PlayStation fans will have to wait a little longer for a port later in the year. Will they show up in their millions again?

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.