Meet the RaceDepartment Member With Over 100 Million YouTube Views in the Past 6 Months

Himura 01.jpg
RaceDepartment member Himura88 has a YouTube channel based mostly around Assetto Corsa that has amassed a staggering 125 million views.

When we think of the bigger YouTube personalities from the world of sim racing, most of us think of names like Jimmy Broadbent, Jardier, and Chris Haye. But there is another personality that has burst onto the sim racing scene in recent months that is poised to become the most popular sim racing content creator ever by the end of this year.

HimuraGaming started a YouTube channel 4 years ago and gained a solid following with his clips of car and motorbike sims. By the middle of December, 2020, the channel had over 100 subscribers and 70,000 channel views. Both figures are impressive, but insignificant next to what was about to happen to the channel in the next month.

By the second week of January, both the channel’s subscribers and viewer count had doubled, and by February both figures had increased 100-fold (~11,000 subscribers and ~8,000,000 channel views) versus December.

And the staggering progress and success of the channel hasn’t ceased in the months since. For those who may not be familiar with YouTube metrics and how these numbers compare to other popular channels, here are some points of reference:
  • Jimmy Broadbent is undoubtedly the biggest YouTube personality in sim racing, but in the last six months alone, HimuraGaming has gained 65% of Jimmy’s all-time video views
  • Many popular sim racing influencers gain 1,000 to 2,000 subscribers per month; HimuraGaming is meeting that mark each day
  • Over six million people watched videos from HimuraGaming on August 10th, which is equivalent to the viewership over many years for many of other top sim racing YouTubers
For those that aren’t familiar with Himura’s work, the newer videos are short clips of exotic sports cars, mostly recorded in Assetto Corsa. There are no voice overs or fancy edits, either. I reached out to Himura88, and here was the take on the success of the channel:

“So, my channel had like 1000 subscribers it was my second channel and one day I wanted to make a vid on Nordschleife with Nismo Boss Gt-R 1500Hp. I was a little fast and I jumped, and then the idea came to make a vid.”


Humble beginnings, to be sure. But things of course got even more intense for the channel after that.

“The video blew up everywhere... on Tik Tok I got like 50 mil views on that vid or something like that. On Facebook 30 mil and so on. And I gained a lot of subs and this is how it started”

The most popular comments on HimuraGaming’s videos share a theme of the videos looking realistic, and in some cases indistinguishable from real-life car footage. Thanks to some excellent graphics mods and 4k footage, the videos look extremely impressive.

So congratulations to Himura88 on the channel’s success, and we wish you all the best in the future of the channel. If you’re not yet subscribed, check out HimuraGaming on YouTube and check out his library of videos here on his RD profile page.

If you are a content creator yourself make sure to let the world know by adding your creations to /videos here.
About author
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

Comments

Hi Mike,

A strange article. It's not because a youtube channel makes lot of view that make great content.
I look this channel and the content is not so interesting.

" How many LMP1 & Lm Hypercars Cars can i overtake at le Mans with F1 2022 in 22 laps" i don't care ;).

I follow your channel Mike because your content is interresting lot of analysis, reflexion a real informative content that is not the cas of this channel.

Have a good day.


Well my perception of the article is that Mike want to share that our nerdy niche business have got the large youtube viewers' Morder's Eye, which I just take as yet another positive news that our society is in healthy grow. I.e. if just a few percentages of such viewers by that kind of videos can be lurked into the world of simracing, it's a good thing :)
Apart from that I agree, and speaking the last couple of years I've e.g. preferred GPLap's channel to Jimmer's channel ;) And 15 sec action flicks do turn me off.
 
Last edited:
No idea how trustworthy the source is, but it should look something like this:

  • Baby Boomers: Baby boomers were born between 1946 and 1964. They're currently between 57-75 years old (71.6 million in the U.S.)
  • Gen X: Gen X was born between 1965 and 1979/80 and is currently between 41-56 years old (65.2 million people in the U.S.)
  • Gen Y: Gen Y, or Millennials, were born between 1981 and 1994/6. They are currently between 25 and 40 years old (72.1 million in the U.S.)
    • Gen Y.1 = 25-29 years old (around 31 million people in the U.S.)
    • Gen Y.2 = 29-39 (around 42 million people in the U.S.)
  • Gen Z: Gen Z is the newest generation, born between 1997 and 2012. They are currently between 6 and 24 years old (nearly 68 million in the U.S.)
  • Gen A: Generation Alpha starts with children born in 2012 and will continue at least through 2025, maybe later (approximately 48 million people in the U.S.)

Source: https://www.kasasa.com/articles/generations/gen-x-gen-y-gen-z
thanks for confirming I was correct :)
 
This channel would blow up additional 100mil views in a week, if Himura would learn to alter engine power, grip and aerodynamic parameters.

 
I don't get why that channel is so popular.

Automobilista 2 looks WAY better then AC tweaked to the max. imo. Especially the tracks in AC look terrible/oudated and may effects are overdone.
 

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Mike Smith
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