Forza Horizon 5 crosses the line at No.4 | UK Boxed Charts

Xbox's critically acclaimed Forza Horizon 5 was the fourth best-selling game at UK games retail last week.

Its launch boxed sales are down 80% over the previous game -- 2018's Forza Horizon 4 -- but with digital and Game Pass, that won't be the case. Xbox has already announced that it is its biggest game launch in history (worldwide), with 4.5 million players. The digital games data will arrive later in the week.

[4Sh0w]

I'm surprised its 4th, considering thats not counting digital & Gamepass which is huge for Xbox.

[EvertonFC]

Tbh, even with GP subs you would think forza across cloud, PC, xbox one/s and series S/X forza still would chart number 1 with digital and physical sales?

[dumahim]

I think it's because the standard version is the only physical copy they put out. If you wanted more, it's digital only.

[dumahim]

Not sure what's up with the downvotes. Standard version is the only version available with a physical copy.

https://www.windowscentral....

"If you want to buy Forza Horizon 5 as a physical disc, you'll be limited to Forza Horizon 5 Standard Edition, which only offers the base game."

[DJStotty]

@EvertonFC

Still reaching i see? if you include cloud/PC and gamepass subs, it is number 1 lmao.

This is simply boxed, UK sales, for Xbox only

[Lightning77]

I don't know why the downvotes. That's actually not counting digital or gamepass at all.

Some are just angry I suppose.

[Teflon02]

I think it's more the fact that it applies to everything on the list. It's pointless to mention because all the titles in the list are counted the exact same way, just boxed

[iraqmilner]

It's surprising because it feels (and looks) like a rehash of the previous title. It's amazing that it has climbed as high as it has, to be honest.

[darthv72]

So what you are really saying is the Mexican vistas and the English countrysides are indistinguishable.... got it.

[theindiearmy]

Crazy to think that a lot of people who liked a game, want a very similar new game to enjoy three years later. Absolutely mad men over there at Microsoft.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

"Bruv, I thought I got on a plane to Mexico City, but you'd swear I just landed in Liverpool. Clamming for a sausage roll at Greggs."

[dumahim]

Some parts of it, yeah. I was spending time in an area yesterday and I noticed how it looked just like a section from the previous game. It isn't all that surprising really. Kind of hard to distinguish grassy countryside and trees with a road going through it.

[DOMination-]

At least we aren't driving around Trial Mountain for the 10th time

[iraqmilner]

Funny how people will accept mediocrity. Glad you're having fun with it, though.

[MadLad]

Yeah.
Virtually every reviewer had, as well as the million that preordered the game, and the millions buying/playing it after the fact need to remember it's nothing special when goty awards come around.

We can't be giving awards to low effort cash grabs like Forza Horizon 5.

[TheColbertinator]

Forza Horizon continues to be a key seller for racers. Helps to distinguish the industry as healthy when the top games aren't shooters or 3rd person action games.

[Magog]

Couldn't sell more than Animal Crossing? Welp.

[MadLad]

Yeah, when you know none of the digital sales are even factored in, and that many probably went that route because of the discount via Gamepass. Or even the fact this probably finally sold many on Gamepass who were holding out; ar least for a month or two, breaking fourth in physical copies, as a day one Gamepass offering, is not a bad look to have.

[badz149]

not really, actually. just look at the 3 games above it. we are talking physical sales here, CoD had a massive sales drop from last year's version (around 40% lower week 1) and was another 47% less than the previous week, FIFA is old at this point, and considering CoD's number, it was a minor spike. AC saw a spike due to its DLC and is pretty old now too. so with FH5 only occupying #4 slot at launch with 80% than FH4, it's pretty safe to assume that the number is nothing to brag about. and this is a sales article, GP shouldn't even be in the conversation like it's some kind of a sale too.

[MadLad]

A racing game didn't sell like CoD or Fifa. Some of the best selling games in the world year after year after year.

You can overplay the sales dip in CoD, but they still sell insane numbers. Fifa ... is fifa. That thing will sell every year, even if they released a completely broken piece of garbage.

4th is a good number for a title that will be had, one way or another, by many via digital.
1 million preorders is a pretty nice number to have, especially when you consider the number of gamepass users.

I don't understand why people are trying to downplay the success this game has been. It's already a definite candidate for goty.

You don't have to be the most successful thing on the market at the moment to be highly successful. And even that's just based on us assuming what the game is selling across all fronts.

[gravedigger]

People ignoring undeniable fact that during FH4 launch there was waaaaay lowet GPU subs number. Around 5 million or less. Now is around 20ish. Surely that is why almost 9 mil. players across PC, Xbox platform and Xcloud. Vast majority will go that route.

[ChasterMies]

“Its launch boxed sales are down 80% over the previous game -- 2018's Forza Horizon 4 -- but with digital and Game Pass, that won't be the case.”

Fairly sure that is exactly the case. Game pass eats into game sales. We will never see sales numbers from Microsoft ever again.

[dumahim]

That and only the standard version had a physical release.

[DJStotty]

I think you mean, the physical release only had a standard edition?

The standard version had a physical and a digital release.

[dumahim]

@DJStotty

It's the same thing. "Only the standard version had a physical release" The Deluxe and and Premium did not.
I did not say the standard version only had a physical release.

[Father__Merrin]

Once we get the week one sales physical and digital we will get a better idea. This should be flying in number 1

[darkrider]

It doesn't seem that way. Much less flying to anywhere. Like the majority of games. Phil Spencer is changing the Microsoft gamers play their games. They rent

[darkrider]

So gp doesn't affect sales? Not even the first blockbuster game in a year can reach top3... On one of the biggest markets. That's why those player news are just marketing talk. What Phil did with day one AAA games on services is losing hundreds of millions. Gamers rent the game and a smaller % buys it. And it's getting smaller and smaller. The game is on both last gen and this Gen consoles....

[Chris12]

Absolutely clueless

[DOMination-]

I don't understand the complaint. Consumers win by paying less money and get the convenience of a game direct to play at midnight on launch day (if they want it) but your concern is that Microsoft - currently the largest company in the world with a market cap of 2.4 trillion dollars has lost out on some money.

For every game that sells on day one for $60, the publisher probably gets half that if being generous, but probably less after retailers, distributors, marketing, licensing and production costs are taken into account. Many of those costs disappear or reduce with a subscription service.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Less sales than the previous game at launch is not a good look. Which is the same as less movie goers going to see the sequel of a movie.

Yeah. Microsoft makes money. But it's off the consumers that don't see the bigger picture of what they try to do and just "jump in."

Xbox fans thought paying for online was a great idea when others said it would lead the industry into all having to pay for online. In which the price has increased. if they are rich, why do you have to pay for online?

They thought DRM was a great idea in 2013. Only thing was that Microsoft was trying to kill used game sales and control what you do with your own property like Windows. They thought a camera was a great idea until that camera was going to be used for advertising and see how many people were in a room to ask for more money.

Now, we got Xbox fans thinking that not paying or paying less for someone's work is a great idea until later when it affects the games and smaller developers as Xbox fans buy less. Microsoft will then control the price they are willing to pay for a game on game pass as it will be small developers only life line if they choose to release on the platform. Getting looks is not the same as getting sales. And bigger companies will end up buying out the smaller ones. And as game pass grows, Microsoft will make less games if at all like Valve does.

Because all they really want to do is sit back and collect checks instead of making games. If they cared as much about games over services, they would have been making more over the last decade. Instead of reactionary developer purchases to prop up a service.

[RauLeCreuset]

Marketing and production remain necessary expenses for games released on subscription services. Platform holders may come to agreements with 3rd party publishers to help with those costs, but that's no different than how such arrangements exist for non-subscription releases.

Licensing costs going away hurt the subscription platform holder when it's a platform holder like Xbox that will lose out directly, on licensing fees from 3rd party releases on the subscription service, and indirectly, from the "Game Pass effect" resulting in customers also holding off on buying titles that are not on the subscription service.

[Orchard]

@ApocalypseShadow

"Less sales than the previous game at launch is not a good look"

Hard to come to that conclusion though when all you have is half the picture...

[Magog]

The complaint is multifold.
1) It conditions gamers to "wait for it to hit gamepass" hurting the sales of literally every dev big and small to one degree or another.
2) Those lost dollars from sales force any dev making a game for game pass to find other ways to monetize it usually even more MTX and drip feed content than ever before. So complete single player games without predatory DLC will become a thing of the past
3) The subsidized losses won't continue forever. Netflix used to be like $5 and now it's closer to $20. By the time the price is raised it may be too late to ever get back the quality of games before gamepass as the economies and game designs will be tailored to it and people are conditioned to just play whatever games they decide to put on the service.
4) It pressures other big names in gaming to create their own rental service which will only exacerbate the previous 3 points.

[moriarty1889]

80% lower sales is obviously due to everyone playing it on gamepass. A lot still purchased it but we will never know how many with MS not reporting actual sales numbers anymore. Either way it’s an incredible game.

[4Sh0w]

Again I dont understand WHY you need to know? Maybe, but not really this would be a curious question if this was a 3rd party dev because *traditionally we like to know whether the games sold enough so that the dev made a profit and thus we have confidence the studio will make more games= THE IS THE ONLY REASON *GAMERS CARE ABOUT SALES= MORE GAMES. That is not a question here, Playground is 1st party, even if they were 3rd we'd just have to wonder how much they received upfront but again Playground is first party, they are well funded and paid very well by a 2.45 TRILLION company. Why in the hell would such a company create a SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE specifically that by its very nature is designed so that users DONT HAVE TO BUY GAMES PER COPY DIRECTLY, now still report only traditional physical copies sold??? It isnt nearly as important anymore, Microsoft have done their job, per release if the games attract a high player count, since thats the point of a sub service.

I really dont understand why so many people fail to grasp this, lol, its not rocket science.

[darkrider]

Sales show if a game flopped or not. That simple. 80% less on one of the biggest markets. Another question is does GP takes sales? Many news about this. The answer again, yes. This game is available for two generations of consoles with very high scores. Yet, sales are much lower then forza horizon 4 and in 2018 we already had gamepass.

[4Sh0w]

darkrider
"Sales show if a game flopped or not."

-Yes they do but no sub service is going to count sales the same way a strictly off the shelf sales model works. Why would they? They are offering you a buffet for a set price, all you can eat, not charging you per chicken wing. Come on bro are you trying to tell me a game with 9mil players out the gate is a flop simply because you dont know what the physical copies sold are? lol, take a step back from the ledge warrior. Also that lower sales youre misquoting is from GfK which did not account for digital & Gamepass.

Still, I just explained that of course Gamepass cuts into sales, ITS SUPPOSE TO.
If youre wondering why because the point is they want you to continue as a longterm customer, rather than sell you 1 game here & there, so over time you spend more money than normal customers WITHIN the Xbox ecosystem vs money spent via other sources.

Try to keep up, I'll use these new movie subscriptions from theaters as an example. Regal Unlimited offers a sub fee at a base price of $18 a month to watch UNLIMITED MOVIES, AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT, AT YOUR CHOICE OF 1 THEATER, (costs more for mutiple theaters) thats about the cost of watching 2 movies depending on what time you go it can easily be MORE FOR 2 MOVIES IF YOU PAY PER MOVIE during peak hours.
https://www.regmovies.com/s... The idea is if a few 1000 people in 1 local area subscribe or millions nationally that YES they will see a drop in individual tickets sold but NOT necessarily PROFITS longterm because #1 these people will buy more concessions, #2 spend more of their *movie/extra money with Regal vs other movie chains.

-I can tell you just dont get it because you do not understand business, you're simply repeating talking points from your old ps3 days that make no sense in 2021.

[KillBill]

Can we stop making articles on UK Boxed Charts as if the chart really has any reflection on how a game is really doing.

[SullysCigar]

If people keep clicking, they'll keep writing.

[Orchard]

Exactly... the UK is already tiny, and then they limit it even further to the ever reducing physical sales...

Perhaps next week they can start reporting how many people rented the game from Blockbuster...

[4Sh0w]

Oh damm Blockbuster....a perfect example of what happens when you fail to adapt to a changing market.

[KillBill]

@4Show - which is what UK Physical sales chart is doing... failing to adapt to already changed digital market.

[CBaoth]

That TINY market is Xbox's second best performing region. Love the downplay. Xbox gamers don't buy games. Each n every week the sales charts prove this. Maybe if folks could buy games with their EBT card....

[DJStotty]

@CBaoth

"Xbox gamers don't buy games"

False, i have just bought Diablo 2 resurrected for full price

[Orchard]

@CBaoth So how many digital copies did Forza sell in the UK?

Until you know that number, you can't say people aren't buying games...