Honestly—and I’ll speak for many others as well, since a lot of my friends quit FH5 because of this—Playground really needs to bring back the competitive mode and motivate players to climb the leagues with cosmetic rewards or exclusive cars. Removing competitive mode drove a huge part of the community away. The developers talk about wanting a game without toxicity and without pushing competition, yet I witnessed people who played this ‘non-competitive’ system becoming even more toxic and frustrating to race against. For example, in cross-country events, players would bring completely inappropriate sports cars, making it pointless to even try finishing the race since there was no real chance to win.
This is a racing game. People want to finish first, improve, and keep trying. So why remove the competitive mode? And if the excuse is that it’s ‘toxic’ or ‘unsportsmanlike,’ then fine—keep a casual mode, like almost every other game does, where you can chill, experiment, and do whatever you want. But we also need a competitive mode for those who want to climb ranks, earn meaningful rewards, and actually have long-term content to play. FH5 completely lacked this; once you finished the season objectives and the DLCs, there was nothing left to do.
And honestly, just like many others, I’m incredibly excited for FH6 because I hope competitive mode finally returns. I hope the developers pay attention to the massive amount of requests in this forum. This is actually the first time I’ve ever posted in a game forum just to ask for a feature to be included—or in this case, brought back. A racing game should have a competitive mode. It’s that simple.
At the end of the day, competition is not the enemy—bad systems are. And right now, FH6 has the chance to fix what FH5 got wrong. Bringing back ranked wouldn’t just satisfy long-time players; it would give the game real longevity, create healthier incentives, and help rebuild a community that has been asking for this for years. If Playground truly wants FH6 to thrive, restoring competitive mode is one of the most important steps they can take.