One of the biggest draws — arguably the biggest draw — for getting Sony's PlayStation 5 console over Microsoft's Xbox Series X|S systems is its catalog of acclaimed AAA exclusive titles like God of War Ragnarök and The Last of Us.
Notably, though, it's come out that the latest of these exclusives has actually been outsold on PS5 by a game that originally launched on and is published by Xbox itself.
That game is none other than Playground Games' and Xbox Game Studios' popular 2021 open-world multiplayer racer Forza Horizon 5, and the PS5 exclusive it's outperformed is Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.
According to a report from the widely relied on game performance tracker Alinea Analytics, Forza Horizon 5 sold 2 million copies on PS5 in the 25 days after its April 29 launch on the platform, while Kojima Productions' new title has moved 1 million units in the same amount of time.
"While it’s been a HUGE hit among critics, DS2’s eccentricity means its sales have come in below other PlayStation Studios titles — including Astro Bot," writes Alinea Analytics' head of market analysis Rhys Elliott.
"Still, it’s one of those franchises that has a long tail — it will continue to sell well over time, boosted by the PC port (likely Q3 2026), which will pull in a lot of Chinese players."
Indeed, the overall weirdness of Death Stranding gives it less widespread appeal and makes it harder to market to the masses, and as Elliott says, many of its sales are expected to trickle in over a long-term period.
In contrast, Forza Horizon 5 is an approachable and accessible arcade racer brimming with content, and there's not much else on the PlayStation Store that compares to its level of quality (Grand Turismo 7 is more of a realistic sim title).
Even so, though, it's impressive to see a four-year-old Xbox game sell double the copies on PS5 that a new PlayStation exclusive has in the same amount of time.
As of last week, it's also officially passed 3 million units sold on the console, putting it ahead of 2024's Game of the Year-winning Astro Bot; Alinea Analytics expects Team Asobi's platformer to hit that milestone "by the end of the summer."
It's worth noting a portion of Forza Horizon 5's recent sales performance has been attributed to a recent discount that brought its $59.99 price tag down 25% to $45. Something to keep in mind, though, is that you can actually get the Deluxe Edition that includes the Car Pass on Xbox and Xbox PC for even less — $42.19 at CDKeys, to be specific.
Some other interesting insights from the report are that the second best-selling PS5 game this year is Monster Hunter Wilds with 2.9 million units moved, followed by Assassin's Creed Shadows at 2 million, Elden Ring Nightreign at 1.4 million, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 with 1.4 million as well.
Monster Hunter Wilds has also sold 6.2 million copies on Steam, making its PC version in particular a massive success for Capcom despite scathing criticism from fans about its gameplay and performance.
Elden Ring Nightreign also sold 2.7 million on Valve's platform, indicating that FromSoftware's biggest IP is thriving, while Expedition 33's performance across all its platforms has been considered exemplary as well.
The success of Xbox games on PlayStation continues
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Microsoft's business strategy with Xbox has increasingly emphasized multiplatform releases and features, with the "This is an Xbox" ad campaign, the upcoming Xbox Ally handhelds, a renewed focus on Xbox Play Anywhere, the growth of Xbox Cloud Gaming, and, of course, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate all coming to mind.
As it goes all-in with that direction, it's also begun to bring select Xbox games to PlayStation. This first began with Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Hi-Fi Rush, and Pentiment going to PS5 last year, and was followed by Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and then Forza Horizon 5 this spring (Gears of War: Reloaded is also coming to PS5 when it launches on Xbox and PC in late August).
Though the overall performance of all of these games on PS5 was mixed, Sea of Thieves and Grounded were quite successful; the former sold 2 million copies on the platform as of late March, with Grounded achieving 432,200, leading to Microsoft briefly taking over the PlayStation Store.
Forza Horizon 5 rising to even greater heights on PS5, then, is a clear sign that Microsoft is continuing to enjoy great success with its PlayStation ports of multiplayer Xbox games — something Sony has no doubt taken notice of, given that it shocked the industry by announcing an Xbox version of Helldivers 2 earlier this month.
As a result of this, it's very likely that we'll continue to see community-driven multiplayer titles from Xbox make their way to PlayStation either at launch or at some point down the line. And while I don't ever expect PS5 games to hit Xbox on day one, I do think we'll see more of what's happening with Helldivers 2, too. Even Sony wants a piece of the multiplatform pie, as evidenced by PlayStation Studios titles continuously coming to PC.
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