Forza Horizon 6 files reportedly leaked on Steam 10 days before release

The launch date of the much-anticipated Forza Horizon 6 is approaching quickly, but we may have a disaster on our hands just 10 days before the release. The game recently went gold, and we even know its file size as it is available to preload. The 6th iteration of the beloved Horizon series is slated to launch on May 19th, 2026, but apparently, the full game leaked on Steam days before it was meant to be available.

Yes, that's right. The full Forza Horizon 6 game was leaked on Steam, and multiple users on social media stumbled upon the entire game files on SteamDB. The news quickly spread on social media and Reddit and was later corroborated by major gaming news outlets like Insider Gaming. What's even more baffling is that the game files were uploaded without encryption, meaning the full game is available to download from sites I'd rather not mention.

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If that wasn't enough, the source of the leak wasn't a hacker or an unethical group trying to play the game before release. No, the entire 155GB repository of Forza Horizon 6 was uploaded (without encryption, mind you) by Playground Games itself, per Insider Gaming. Someone is definitely getting fired somewhere because of this blunder. Of course, Playground Games denies any wrongdoing leading to the leak, so it's still up in the air as to who leaked it.

The file repository is 155.63 GB in total, but the compressed size is being shown as 139.53 GB. This collection has nearly 5000 publicly available files, including the DLCs, the media folder, and the executable "forzahorizon6.exe." What's more is that bad actors have already copied the files and uploaded them on various websites of ill repute, and pirates can gain full access to Horizon 6, including the DLCs, 10 days before release.

Playground Games has recently addressed this leak and has started taking action. It seems like they have equipped the ban hammer and are starting to ban people for playing the game too early or for sharing content that isn't meant to be shared. A YouTuber, DVS Squad, was banned for uploading the leaked gameplay footage online. Guess how long his ban will be? You're wrong. It's 69,895,509 hours, or in other words, until 31st December 9999.

Sounds like someone over at Playground Games is NOT happy with the leak, and it's not hard to understand why. Anyway, if you want to play Forza Horizon 6 the correct way, it is scheduled to launch on May 19th, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S and PC. It will be available to purchase and download through Steam and Microsoft Store, and will also be available on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass at launch.