Most Played Racing Titles on Steam in July 2023

Steam Most Played July 2023 The Crew 2.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 important racing titles on Steam in July 2023.

Image credit: Ubisoft

Just like in previous months, not much has changed at the top of the list for most played racing titles on Steam. The podium spots remain unchanged yet again, but a somewhat surprising switch of positions pushes one big title out of the top five for July.

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.

Surprises in the Top Ten​

After immediately cracking the top five in the month of its release, F1 23 has slipped down a spot already with a noticeable loss of average player count, posting a 26,22% deficit compared to the previous month. Instead, the official Formula One game has been overtaken by SnowRunner, which received two new locations and two new trucks as part of its July update. The title has seen an improvement of almost 35% of its average player count.

However, even SnowRunners' numbers pale in comparison to the biggest mover of July 2023: The Crew 2 saw an increase of almost 280% in average players and gained eight positions in the ranking, easily cracking the top ten this time. The game's most recent update has been deployed in May already, though - maybe the previews of its successor The Crew Motorfest have reignited interest in the title.

Meanwhile, Need for Speed Unbound jumped its predecessor Heat again following the release of the Vol. 3 Update, as well as its inclusion in the EA Play program in late June. Further down the order, Need for Speed Heat (39,98%) and Automobilista 2 (21,6%) have seen significant increases in interest as well, the latter due to its big update to v1.5 including the revised tire physics and the Adrenaline Pack DLC.

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The Numbers
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About author
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

Comments

Assetto Corsa: 8,707.9, thank you Kunos for this outstanding simulator, still gaining in popularity after all those years. Just phenomenal.
It was already special when all it had was a Lotus Elise hotlapping at Magione.
Now that it has more content available than one can possibly hope to drive in a life time, it is a monument.
Downloading the latest track recently built in Hungary as I write this and looking forward to try this latest addition.
 
The Crew 2 will be taking off as you will be able to move most of the cars unlocked in that over to The Crew Motorfest, so it's a cheap way to unlock content early!
 
The direction needs to change, in a connected world where everyone interacts and competes some devs still didnt figure out what iracing figured out a long time ago ( even with a shady sim and shady payment model ) .... Private leagues are important but cant be the norm for some sims... and better integration needs to happen with the ones that use 3rd party apps to have organized championships and races, some like simracingsystem ( the first to come up ) had to jump so many barriers that for the devs of the games themselves would be easy ... being a good sim isnt enough, people need objectives , goals, better cheat protection, a place where it makes sense you keep coming back to "build" a reputation or compete on a regular basis ...
 
To me, it's evident that story-based arcade games outperform simulations, except for AC. It makes me wonder why developers bother with simulations. Perhaps it's time we show appreciation to those developers who take the risk of creating what we truly enjoy.
I hate story based sims... are they even sims? 99% of Iracing peeps don't use Steam. I'd love to see the real numbers for sims (on Steam and not on Steam). I'm sure Iracing would trounce a few of these right off the bat.
 
As an AMS2 main user, I never thought I would see it have more racers than rFactor 2. And bearing in mind that the latter is probably on its best shape ever (cannot say with certainty as I uninstalled it many moons ago and I'm not looking back), I cannot understand why it's so low on the charts.
 
Premium
As an AMS2 main user, I never thought I would see it have more racers than rFactor 2. And bearing in mind that the latter is probably on its best shape ever (cannot say with certainty as I uninstalled it many moons ago and I'm not looking back), I cannot understand why it's so low on the charts.
RF2 is not getting much developer attention, for obvious reasons. Could be that gamers see its on its end of life cycle and don't want to invest the time. AMS2 is getting better and better as well and pulling people like me away from RF2.
 
Premium
To me, it's evident that story-based arcade games outperform simulations, except for AC. It makes me wonder why developers bother with simulations. Perhaps it's time we show appreciation to those developers who take the risk of creating what we truly enjoy.
as in... single player off line sims that are not beholden to a third party launcher and distributor.
yeah, perhaps that's why I like the older simbin titles, I'm not tracked every time I decide to have a play.

yeah, I'm not a fan of steam, but you might have figured that already
 
Assetto Corsa: 8,707.9, thank you Kunos for this outstanding simulator, still gaining in popularity after all those years. Just phenomenal.
It was already special when all it had was a Lotus Elise hotlapping at Magione.
Now that it has more content available than one can possibly hope to drive in a life time, it is a monument.
Downloading the latest track recently built in Hungary as I write this and looking forward to try this latest addition.
Well, CSP and the no hesi kids on Shutoku are a good chunk of the numbers
 

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