Forza Horizon 6 Played a Part in Boosting XBOX Series X|S Sales in the UK

It hasn’t been even a month since Forza Horizon 6 has globally released, but the title is apparently helping to boost XBOX Series X|S sales, at least in the UK. Fresh UK sales data suggests XBOX Series X|S recorded a significant rise in sales volume in May 2026.

Forza Horizon 6 has partly helped boosting XBOX Series X|S sales in the UK

The sales volume grew by 12% month-over-month. While Microsoft hasn’t shared official figures, industry analyst Chris Dring, via a post on BlueSky, highlighted the increase and pointed to Forza Horizon 6 as one of the biggest reasons behind the momentum (via PureXbox).

PlayStation 5, on the other hand, reportedly suffered a significant decline following recent price increases. As a result, Sony’s console is said to have outsold XBOX Series X|S by only about 400 units across the month. Putting it simply, the sales of the consoles largely remained same in the last month.

For a platform that has spent years hearing that exclusives no longer move hardware, the timing is certainly interesting. The latest entry in Playground Games’ racing franchise has quickly become one of XBOX’s biggest releases of the year. To catch you up, Forza Horizon 6 recently smashed every Xbox Game Studios game’s Steam concurrent player record.

That matters because the conversation around XBOX hardware has increasingly shifted toward software, subscriptions, and cloud gaming. However, the latest UK numbers suggest major exclusives may still have the power to convince players to buy a console.

Whether Forza Horizon 6 alone caused the increase remains difficult to determine. XBOX has also spent recent months rolling out new platform features and expanding its ecosystem. However, the success of a major first-party release arriving exclusively on XBOX hardware cannot be ignored. Speaking of console sales, let’s not forget that Nintendo’s decision to hike the price of Switch 2 in the Japan isn’t sitting well with players.