Forza Horizon 6: Early Access Begins May 15, Full Release May 19 (West Coast unlocks 9:01 p.m. PDT)

Playground Games has pinned down exactly when players can start Forza Horizon 6, and the most useful takeaway is straightforward: early access begins Friday, May 15, with players on the U.S. West Coast getting in at 9:01 p.m. PDT on Thursday, May 14. The full launch follows Tuesday, May 19, again opening at 9:01 p.m. PDT on Monday, May 18, for West Coast players. Preloading is already live on Steam, Xbox Series X/S and the Xbox app for PC.

The key wrinkle is that Xbox and Steam are handling release timing differently. On Xbox, the unlock is effectively tied to a 12:01 a.m. Eastern release, which translates to 9:01 p.m. Pacific the night before. Steam, by contrast, is using a global unlock aligned to U.S. Eastern Time, so players outside North America will see the game open later in their local morning or afternoon rather than at midnight.

For players in the U.S., that means Xbox early access starts at 9:01 p.m. PDT on May 14 and 12:01 a.m. EDT on May 15. The full Xbox launch starts at 9:01 p.m. PDT on May 18 and 12:01 a.m. EDT on May 19. Steam follows those same U.S. times, but the global timing is especially relevant elsewhere: early access begins at 5:01 a.m. BST and 6:01 a.m. CEST on May 15, then 1:01 p.m. JST and 2:01 p.m. AEST. The full Steam launch lands at those same local times on May 19.

Not everyone gets in on May 15. Early access is limited to players who buy the Premium Edition or purchase the Premium Upgrade. It is not included automatically with Xbox Game Pass. The standard release, however, will be available day one on Xbox Game Pass for PC and Game Pass Ultimate on May 19, making it one of Microsoft’s bigger subscription launches of 2026.

The preload timing matters because Forza Horizon 6 is a large download. Preloads went live May 12 across Steam, Xbox Series X/S and the Xbox app for PC, giving players a few extra days to clear space and install the game ahead of launch. Earlier reporting around a pre-release PC build pegged it at roughly 155 GB, a size that can take hours to download depending on connection speeds and available storage.

The official schedule also answers a question that had been hanging over the rollout after a pre-release PC leak surfaced earlier in May. Despite that leak, Microsoft and Playground Games have not changed the launch plan: Forza Horizon 6 still arrives first on Xbox Series X/S and PC, with a PS5 version planned later in 2026.