Will Forza Horizon 5 Still Be Relevant In 2026?

Forza Horizon 5 was released in 2021 and became an instant hit. It's version of Mexico, sunny and sprawling, became the ‘playground’ for a lot of gamers, and even four years later, Forza Horizon 5 is still an icon. Many gamers still have it stored on their hard drives.

Tools of the Trade: The Creative Playground

Once you enter the Creative Hub of Forza Horizon 5, the number of possibilities available to you can seem like too much to process at once. But then, you realize, this is your canvas. The game's photo mode is probably one of the most sophisticated I have ever used. You can manipulate aperture and focus, control the time of day, and even tweak the weather. Start with the perfect golden hour shot of your Koenigsegg Jesko tearing across a panoramic desert trail?

You can add decals, add more layers of graphics to the existing layers, and even go to the extent of trying to develop your own imaginary car design. In 2026, the livery editor is still the best of the rest. I, and a lot of others, have spent hours on screens of sleek minimalist car designs and wonky neon monstrosities. The best part is sharing these designs with the rest of US. The experience of watching someone race online with your design is awesome!

Gifting and Kudos: Spreading the Joy

The game took a dramatic turn toward the more romantic new features on gifting. Some heartwarming aspects involve the notion of dropping a car in a barn and having remote players locate it. You can customize the present by writing a note. There is real happiness in logging in and seeing game users send messages thanking you for their rare rides.

The kudos system, on the other hand, is deeply troubling. Earning kudos points is easy, yet they have no real value. Super7 and Forzathon: Challenge Absolutely Accepted: If your nature allows you to enjoy the thrill of creating and completing challenges, then Super7 is the answer.

Then there’s Forzathon: more of an event than a ‘game’ and something that should be improving with every season but has remained static since launch. At this point, in 2026, it’s a tad monotonous, but Forzathon still manages to introduce a slant to the gameplay loop. Be it ‘Battling’ the ‘Unbeatable’ Bots in a whatever-imbecile tournament or doing the not-so crazy stuff, Forzathon remains entertaining in Forza Horizon 5, collected. Strangely, Forzathon does seem to stand out in stark contrast to the rest of Forza.

The Marvelous Mexico Map: A Mexico Map

This is a Map that Goes for Forza. It contains an optimal landscape and is highly photogenic. It is charming to say the least. The detailed slaps like shrines on the side of the road with skulls, and thickened splotches of color pop like markets, and swirls of ventricles of the more colorful paintings.

Sadly, like beauty, it has no shame at all; the map desperately begs to be used. The gameplay of Forza Horizon 5 resembles that game where the more time you spend pouring the ingredients into the cup, the more the slaps- like shrines on the backdrop feel alive. The game has missions that go into Mexico like the story of going after a ‘lost’ Volkswagen Beetle, that makes the leap to these miles ins and out splotches of ton- and only ton-‘dry’ a base- the- the expanded road, which only gets more outperformed- is- purrs and shrines fat dry cut out to 5 massive ‘races’ dressed in a sad attempt of props that bare- these tiny- bottom dozen dressed. It feels sad.

What Could Be Added In 2026

Let’s quickly tackle the elephant in the room: the absence of newer car models. By 2026, the car roster is starting to show its age. There have been updates, but a good deal of the updates for car models for the previous few years appear to be missing. There are fewer players who buy Xbox racing games now than at launch, and some features like the Horizon Arcade events seem to have lost a bit of their energy. It is still fun, but it’s not as festive as it used to be.

Conclusion

So, is Forza Horizon 5 still worth a player’s time in the year 2026? Undoubtedly it is, albeit with a few caveats. My main focus has to be on the racing, and for that, the game is at a certain age, which shows in certain aspects. A universal constant is that Forza Horizon 5 still thrives in its creativity. The excitement that comes with churning out a livery and then staging a grand shoot, only to share it with the community, is still very much possible. All the possibilities are still there, and that Mexico map is as awe-inspiring as it has always been, even though at times, it lacks the most in the gameplay.