Forza Horizon 5 is a 2021 racing game developed by Playground Games and published by Xbox Game Studios. It is the fifth Forza Horizon title, following Forza Horizon 4, and the twelfth main instalment in the Forza series. The game is set in a fictionalised representation of Mexico. It was released on 9 November 2021 for Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. It marks the final mainline Forza instalment released on Xbox One. The game was also released for PlayStation 5 on 29 April 2025, the first instance of a mainline Forza game being released on a non-Microsoft platform.
Forza Horizon 5 was a commercial success upon release; it launched to over 10 million players in its first week, the biggest-ever launch for an Xbox Game Studios game. The game received critical acclaim, winning IGN's Game of the Year award, three jury-voted awards at the Game Awards 2021, tying with It Takes Two for most wins, and Racing Game of the Year at the 25th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. A sequel, Forza Horizon 6, launched on 19 May 2026.
Gameplay
Forza Horizon 5 is a racing game set in an open world environment based in a fictional representation of Mexico. The game has the largest map in the entire Forza Horizon series, being 50% larger than its predecessor, Forza Horizon 4, while also having the highest point in the Horizon series. The map was described by creative director Mike Brown as one of the most diverse Forza Horizon maps the team has built. The map contains an active caldera volcano, jungles and beaches, ancient Mayan temples, and towns and cities such as Guanajuato. Players can explore the open world freely, though they can also compete in multiplayer races and complete the campaign mode. Both the cars featured in the game and the player character can be extensively customised. Players are able to create custom liveries and tunes for cars, and perform engine swaps, drivetrain swaps, or install body kits on certain vehicles. The game is the first in the franchise to support ray tracing on cars. It introduces a new weather system (local weather) in which players can visit one side of the map and can visibly see a storm. Because Mexico is such a vast nation with such a wide range of elevations, multiple climates would appear in the game at around the same time. The four seasons still exist but would affect the eleven unique biomes around the map. For example, in the dry season, dust storms will appear, while tropical storms occur throughout the fall storm season. Another detail is in the jungle, in which the environment would now react to the weather; an example of this is leaves flying everywhere.
Development
Forza Horizon 5 was developed by Playground Games. The goal for the team was to create a game whose scale was significantly larger than its predecessors. The team chose Mexico as the game's setting due to its diverse and varied landscape. The team partnered with Mexican artists to create the in-game murals, and Mexican musicians to create the in-game soundtracks. It also sent a team to visit Mexico to capture real-world light and sky data. The game utilised photogrammetry data extensively in order to make the game's virtual environment to look similar to its real-life counterpart. An example of this is the rocks in the side of the caldera volcano where they can be viewed with such detail. Individual objects, such as the needles of cholla cacti, can also be displayed by the game (although this is only available for the Xbox Series consoles as of now)
Reception
Forza Horizon 5 received "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator website Metacritic. Game Informer appreciated the social interactions in the game, especially the score comparisons, "More times than I could count, I noticed my friend hit a higher top speed, causing me to turn around and try the challenge again". Ars Technica liked the visuals of the title, praising how it looked "next-gen", "I seriously cannot keep track of how many times FH5 made my eyes bulge. The game takes special care to emphasize massive vistas ... with screen-bursting HDR effects doing wonders for a richly saturated canvas of cities, sunsets, and scenery". While criticizing the car handling for making the game too easy, Rock Paper Shotgun enjoyed the new additions to the formula like the EventLab creator and Super7 events, "If you’ve played a Forza Horizon game before then you might feel a slight sense of deja vu, but you won’t care as the formula has been perfected at last". Eurogamer praised Forza Horizon 5's open world of Mexico, writing that "The map is an absolute wonder, backed by a game engine which can deliver staggering views across the whole thing from the summit of the volcano that towers over it. The environments are rich and saturated with colour and atmosphere, from humid swamps to arid dunes, from deep, verdant canyons to pastel-striped barrios"