Forza Horizon 5 Tops PS5 Sales

Nearly four years after its original release on PC and Xbox consoles, Forza Horizon 5 launched on PlayStation 5 at the end of March 2025. Since then, the game has surpassed 3 million copies sold on Sony’s platform, making it the best-selling new PlayStation 5 title of the year based on units sold. This milestone pushes Forza Horizon 5 ahead of other major releases, including Monster Hunter: Wilds, which previously held the top position.

Forza Horizon 5 Tops PS5 Sales

A key factor in Forza Horizon 5’s rise was its recent price promotion. The game was briefly discounted by 25 percent to $45, which helped drive additional sales and ultimately pushed it past the three million mark. The success of the title on PlayStation highlights the broader momentum behind Xbox’s off-platform strategy, where select first-party titles are being made available across competing platforms.

Forza Horizon 5 Tops PS5 Sales

Xbox’s Off-Platform Strategy Shows Results

In addition to its PS5 performance, Forza Horizon 5 has maintained strong traction on other platforms. On Steam, the game has sold approximately 6.5 million copies, while more than 45.5 million players have experienced the title across Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, primarily through Xbox Game Pass. These figures underscore the continued strength of the Forza Horizon franchise across multiple ecosystems.

The performance of Forza Horizon 5 on PS5 also signals a possible shift in how Xbox approaches game distribution. With the franchise now performing well off-platform, speculation has grown around Forza Horizon 6 potentially launching on PlayStation and other platforms on day one. This move would align with Xbox’s broader transition from a hardware-first company to a third-party publisher, a shift that continues to unfold across 2025.

Monster Hunter: Wilds

Following closely behind Forza Horizon 5, Monster Hunter: Wilds has sold 2.9 million copies on PS5 in 2025. The title has seen even greater success on Steam, where it has reached 6.2 million units sold. While Forza leads in units sold on PS5, Monster Hunter: Wilds has generated more revenue, largely due to its higher $70 price point compared to Forza Horizon 5’s $60 standard pricing and periodic sales.

The strong commercial performance of Monster Hunter: Wilds is part of a larger trend for Capcom, which has significantly expanded its presence on PC platforms in recent years. The game has earned well over half a billion dollars this year across all platforms.

Forza Horizon 5 Tops PS5 Sales

Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the latest installment in Ubisoft’s long-running franchise, has sold around two million copies on PS5 and an additional 650,000 units on Steam. Xbox platforms, through services like Ubisoft+, have contributed roughly 1.1 million players. Although the title has generated over $180 million in revenue, profitability has been limited due to high development costs. Ubisoft has confirmed a production budget of at least $115 million, suggesting that the game has only recently broken even after four months on the market.

Elden Ring: Nightreign

FromSoftware’s Elden Ring: Nightreign has sold 1.4 million copies on PlayStation platforms in 2025. It has also moved 2.7 million units on Steam and 750,000 on Xbox, totaling nearly five million across all platforms. Player data shows that a significant majority of Nightreign players are returning fans of the original Elden Ring, with engagement rates of 84 percent on PlayStation and 77 percent on Steam. The game’s cross-platform appeal reinforces Elden Ring’s position as a flagship franchise for FromSoftware.

Expedition 33

Rounding out the current top five is Expedition 33, a turn-based role-playing game (RPG) from Sandfall that has resonated strongly with fans of traditional JRPGs. The game has sold 1.4 million copies on PS5 and 2.3 million on Steam. Notably, Expedition 33 is the only new intellectual property in the top five and has managed to outsell 2024 releases like Metaphor: Refantazio and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth on PS5. This performance is significant, particularly given those titles’ ties to long-established JRPG studios and the PlayStation brand.

Forza Horizon 5 Tops PS5 Sales

Looking Ahead

The current rankings may shift later in the year with several high-profile games still to launch. College Football 26, for instance, has already sold nearly 1.2 million copies on PS5 within two weeks of release, suggesting it may soon enter the top five. Other anticipated releases, such as FC 26, Borderlands 4, and the next Call of Duty installment, are also expected to impact the leaderboard in the coming months.

Despite growing competition, Forza Horizon 5 has already outpaced several notable 2025 releases. For comparison, Death Stranding 2 sold one million copies on PS5 after 25 days, but sales have begun to stabilize. Astro Bot, which won Game of the Year in 2024, took roughly three months to reach two million units on PS5 and is projected to pass three million by the end of summer. Here is a list of all the games mentioned in the article:

1. Forza Horizon 5
2. Monster Hunter: Wilds
3. Assassin’s Creed Shadows
4. Elden Ring: Nightreign
5. Expedition 33
6. Metaphor: Refantazio
7. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
8. College Football 26
9. FC 26
10. Borderlands 4
11. Call of Duty: Black Ops (unnumbered/jokingly referred to as "Black Ops IIIIIII")
12. Death Stranding 2
13. Astro Bot

Source: Alinea Analytics