Earlier this week, developer Microsoft and publisher Playground Games announced that its arcade racing game Forza Horizon 4 would be delisted from its Xbox and Steam stores digital stores on December 15, 2024, due to expiring licensing agreements. That announcement, plus a big discount on the game itself, has led to a massive surge of player interest in the game, as least on Steam.
According to SteamDB, Forza Horizon 4 has over 70,000 concurrent players online on Valve"s service at the time of this writing. That"s by far the largest number of concurrent players for the game since it launched its Steam version in March 2021. The game is currently the 16th most-played title on Steam.
Microsoft has also cut the price of the three versions of Forza Horizon 4 on Steam by 80 percent. Right now, the standard version of the game is the number one best-selling game on Steam. However, this discount is scheduled to go away at 1 pm Eastern time later today.
Forza Horizon 4, which first launched for Xbox platforms in 2018, has already delisted all of its DLC packs, including car packs, expansions, and the Treasure Map. The game will also remove a number of Xbox achievements on August 22.
While the game is going to be delisted from digital stores on December 15, people who purchase the game before that deadline from the Xbox Store and Steam will still be able to re-download them after that date. The game"s multiplayer servers will still be in operation after December 15, and anyone who has bought a physical edition will also still be able to play the game for the foreseeable future.
Playground Games is still working on and adding new content to the current game in this series, Forza Horizon 5, and the developer is also working on the reboot of the Fable fantasy RPG franchise that"s due in 2025.