Most Played Racing Games on Steam in September 2023

BeamNG.drive Most Played on Steam September 2023.jpg
The popularity of racing games and simulations is hard to gauge, especially since they seem to vary considerably around the releases of new content, big updates or even influences of real-world events. What can be gauged, however, is cold, hard numbers – so we did just that for the most played racing games on Steam in September 2023.

Image credit: BeamNG

Note: While iRacing is available on Steam as well, its numbers are not representative as most players acces the sim through its own UI. As a result, its statistics are not included in this article.

September 2023 shook things up quite a bit in the world of the most played racing games on Steam. The effect of upcoming releases could already be felt in some cases, and a substantial update catapulted a new title onto the throne.

BeamNG.drive Tops List​

After months of reigning supreme, Forza Horizon 5 is no longer running up front. Instead, BeamNG.drive has taken the lead after its most recent update. The game has added experimental VR support with v0.30 – as a result, player counts increased enough to snatch P1 from FH5.

Meanwhile, DiRT Rally 2.0 has seen a considerable influx of players again. This is likely due to the in-depth looks at its successor EA Sports WRC presented over the last few weeks. While the title will only release in early November, racers seem to be keen to get back on the stages.

Interestingly, Need for Speed Heat has jumped up the list with a remarkable increase of over 200% in average players. Its successor Need for Speed Unbound, on the other hand, took a marginal hit. That is while having nowhere near the average player count of the older game, though.

Check out the numbers of the most played racing games on Steam in September 2023 below!

Most Played Racing Games on Steam September 2023​

TitleAvg. PlayersPeakGain %
BeamNG.drive10997,2232104,12
Forza Horizon 51078824051-16,85
Assetto Corsa8263,2158463,95
Forza Horizon 44822,412346-14
Need for Speed Heat4187,210651213,68
F1 233257,981280,56
SnowRunner32106746-4,63
CarX Drift Racing Online2397,64400-0,01
Assetto Corsa Competizione2283,7640314,17
MX Bikes1703,333516,05
F1 Manager 202313802937-41,61
F1 2211342558-9,96
Need for Speed Unbound1034,52198-5,99
Dirt Rally 2.01031,3227524,09
My Summer Car998,12214-20,02
The Crew 2877,11558-23,09
Trackmania802,11807-4,48
Asphalt 9 Legends686,31383-0,82
F1 Manager 2022469928-33,38
RaceRoom449,81205-1,39
Wreckfest4291035-10,61
rFactor 24049796,26
Automobilista 2379,8847-22,97
MudRunner379,4102139,28
Disney Speedstorm376,76759350,75
F1 2021309,5674-12,63

What are your thoughts on the most played racing games on Steam in September 2023? Let us know on Twitter @OverTake_gg or in the comments below!
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About author
Yannik Haustein
Yannik Haustein
Lifelong motorsport enthusiast and sim racing aficionado, walking racing history encyclopedia.

Sim racing editor, streamer and one half of the SimRacing Buddies podcast (warning, German!).

Heel & Toe Gang 4 life :D

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Comments

jonelsorel
This is what.. the 3rd article shedding light on BeamNG in the last few months? Almost don't recognize you, RD, suddenly starting to acknowledge the most played racing game out there, even if it's a grasroots sandbox sim made by an unknown studio and not a big pile of officially licensed simcade by a huge developer. I guess being pointed to reality several times in articles pushing non sims as sims pays off after all.
 
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M
Premium
A man with a Harmonica said:
VR is crap at current state. A heavy and hot sprawl keeping my head wired at low FPS and blocking me to see the environment. Tried MSFS2020 in a 4090 RTX and the HP Reverb G2 and the level of detail is ripped to the half and horrible FPS on the ground. Maybe someday with new technologies, nowadays is unbearable.
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That’s the most demanding game possible do a terrible example . Racing games work far better and it’s very far from crap . Try AMS2 dialled up on a 4090 with a higher end headset like an aero or crystal - it’s 4K stapled to your eyeballs almost and an unbelievable experience .
 
F2020
SharkVA said:
That's exciting, because I was very impressed by the progress they made with v1.5. AMS2 collected dust for many, many months (as did my sim rig for that matter). Since 1.5, it's been a weekly experience for me. Taking the retro cars out in VR around historical track layouts and cranking the sound level up...holy smokes what a fun time AMS2 has become. Add in the livery and driver name mods...hell yes Reiza.
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I agree! I have just been racing round the old 10k monzo at sunrise in the 80s:90s indycars in vr, it was literally the highlight of my 5 hours on the pc playing sims today. SOME of the cars handle really well currently and are just as good (imo) as similar cars in AC, although in a slightly different way, I feel their tyres (I think more) in ams2. The gentleman says in the above post about this upcoming update will improve even further makes me really happy. I love ams2 and hope it becomes what Reiza are striving for.
 
R.Man
pai said:
I don't talk based on what they said. I base myself on how the cars on beta feel and handle when I drive them.
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Yeah lot of fans said that the handling and physic were great even with the v 1.0
 
S
mcroshaw said:
There are plenty of people playing it, but clearly not all at the same time. I'm part of 2 communities that play it regularly and that hasn't stopped. But there are a number of factors...
1.Summer - this should affect everyone, but when the user base is small anyway its more obvious.
2.Not much has been happening in the public release version, Reiza are working hard on the end of October update, but most people don't see that.
3.There are a LOT of other titles to try, and not just racing games, its been a crazy couple of months for gaming, I know a lot of racers who have dived into BG3 or Starfield, and now Forza.
4.New iRacing season. I'm sure I can't be the only one who gets hyped for a new iRacing season, plays for a few weeks and then realises it's still the same crap graphics and FFB and goes back to games that are actually fun:)
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This might be a viable view from hardcore simracers perspective but reality is that AMS2 is not popular and (most likely) will never be. Btw, lots of people have free time during summer to race, there are ALWAYS new games to play so those are just random excuses.
 
F2020
Aki Korhonen said:
if they change physics engine maybe they can get more players. i mean car has to go like a real car goes.
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Some of those old indy cars are simply fantastic, some of the best cars i've ever driven in ANY sim, not sure how anyone could dislike the physics where they are concerned.
 
G
F2020 said:
Some of those old indy cars are simply fantastic, some of the best cars i've ever driven in ANY sim, not sure how anyone could dislike the physics where they are concerned.
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I don't get it either, after 1.5 the physics are just fanatastic for most cars(many more cars then the old indy cars drive great and have great phyiscs).

These stats prove only one thing and that is that sim racing is a niche. Most people that play racing games want arcade race games; not race sims. And even if they choose a sim (like AC1) then they play mostly the arcade part of it; like Japanese road racing, drifting etc. that's probably the biggest reason why AC1 is higher in the list than ACC (+a small minority that still prefers it over ACC because of the better VR support).
 
F2020
gamma123152 said:
I don't get it either, after 1.5 the physics are just fanatastic for most cars(many more cars then the old indy cars drive great and have great phyiscs).

These stats prove only one thing and that is that sim racing is a niche. Most people that play racing games want arcade race games; not race sims. And even if they choose a sim (like AC1) then they play mostly the arcade part of it; like Japanese road racing, drifting etc. that's probably the biggest reason why AC1 is higher in the list than ACC (+a small minority that still prefers it over ACC because of the better VR support).
Click to expand...
Yeah you are right, there are some absolutely wonderful cars in AMS2 that handle really really well. I put a bit of time in last night and had a blast. Had some nice races in the Porotypes, as RD's very own SimRacing604 did a cool video on them the other day, so checked it out for myself and had a brilliant race, i highly recommend trying it, check his channel out, its his latest video i think.

The Reiza team are working super hard for us guys to build something special & should get a little more respect and encouragement from certain people on this site imo, AMS2 is on a positive trajectory, its getting really good.

It must be so annoying to read certain posts and reactions by certain people on this site all time. The Reiza team read this site and are literally just working on a project that is of huge passion to them, they dont need to see the nonsense posted by certain people about their work all the time.
 

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