Most Played Racing Games on Steam in August 2023

Most Played Steam August 2023 F1 Manager 1024.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 August 2023.

Image credit: Frontier Developments

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.


While the order remains mostly unchanged compared to previous months, an interesting trend can be made out looking at the numbers: Even the top dogs Forza Horizon 5 and BeamNG.drive were not immune to an almost universal drop in average players across August. With its successor Motorfest on the horizon, The Crew 2 racked up the biggest loss in average players at 60,05%.

Most Player Gains in August 2023​

On the other hand, a few titles posted significant gains: My Summer Car's average went up by 35,71%, and F1 Manager 2023 even got 45,29% more players on average compared to July. Additionally, RIDE 5 immediately eclipsed its predecessor despite being released towards the end of August.

Looking at the four-wheel based simulations, only two have gained players throughout August: Automobilista 2 has slightly increased its average player count by 7,79%, and DiRT Rally saw a gain of 2,24% - the game's average remains low at 114, however, which is why it does not feature on our list.

You can check out the numbers of August's most played racing games on Steam below.


Steam: Most Played Racing Games August 2023​

TitleAvg. PlayersPeakGain %
Forza Horizon 5​
12974,2​
35120​
-8,78​
BeamNG.drive​
10561,7​
16988​
-5,30​
Assetto Corsa​
7949,1​
14020​
-8,71​
Forza Horizon 4​
5607,2​
13507​
-15,00​
SnowRunner​
3365,8​
7316​
-20,29​
F1 23​
3239,6​
8023​
-19,95​
CarX Drift Racing Online​
2397,7​
3958​
-5,88​
F1 Manager 2023​
2363,3​
6352​
45,29​
Assetto Corsa Competizione​
2000,3​
4560​
-9,27​
Need for Speed Heat​
1334,9​
2352​
-36,64​
F1 22​
1259,5​
2820​
-30,59​
My Summer Car​
1248​
2418​
35,71​
The Crew 2​
1140,5​
2310​
-60,05​
Need for Speed Unbound​
1100,3​
1979​
-53,08​
DiRT Rally 2.0​
831,1​
1454​
-14,12​
F1 Manager 2022​
703,9​
1665​
-34,78​
Automobilista 2​
493​
1164​
7,79​
Wreckfest​
479,9​
1292​
-2,92​
RaceRoom​
456,1​
1141​
-6,38​
RIDE 5​
414,6​
799​
0,00​
rFactor 2​
380,2​
878​
-5,52​
F1 2021​
354,3​
816​
-23,25​
RIDE 4​
352​
906​
-5,33​

What do you make of the most played racing games on Steam in August 2023? Are there any surprises to you? Let us know in the comments below!
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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

I sold a set of Fanatec V3 pedals on a marketplace a couple weeks ago.

The buyer arrived to pick up the pedals and we were discussing all things sim racing,. Looking at my sim set up he asked if I was into iRacing.

Nope, I primarily play AMS2./Automobilista 2

His reply....What's that?
I laughed. I should not have laughed. But I did.
 
What the hell is the 2nd placed „beamNG“? The players enjoy crashing and folding cars with npc s inside? What s wrong with you guys?

If that's all you take from beamng, I'm afraid you're missing the point by some margin.
 
Premium
These stats are all about concurrent usage so probably aren't completely representative. The developers are probably more interested in how many copies plus DLC they have sold.

Something like AMS2 with it's South American focus may well have more users in that area who just wouldn't be online at the same time as the Europeans. AMS2 is also more of a single player game than it is online so people are not incentivised to race on a schedule. An ACC online player may well be trying to make sure they are online at the same time as everyone else as they want to get into populated online lobbies?

A more useful statistic would probably be number of individual players and hours played.

Like most statistics without context they can give you a general idea of what's happening but they don't get anywhere near telling the whole story.

These articles are all just clickbait as (like me) everyone likes to chip in with an opinion.
 
D
If that's all you take from beamng, I'm afraid you're missing the point by some margin.
Seems to be. Yt is feeded only with folding crashes by beamNG - crazy people loving such a stupid game
 
Seems to be. Yt is feeded only with folding crashes by beamNG - crazy people loving such a stupid game

I wouldn't trust yt's algorithm to educate me properly on any topic. Beamng has one of the best physics engines on the consumer sim market today (tires being the most important). That some people limit themselves to crashing cars in it is just a sign of their preference (and iq, probably). Try it offroad, then onroad.
 
Seems to be. Yt is feeded only with folding crashes by beamNG - crazy people loving such a stupid game

Take Niels Heusinkveld opinion on its physics.

The game being sandbox means that anyone can find his way to have fun with it, and looks like people love to crash cars.
But you have a lot of base content and mods for whatever you'd like to do with it. If it involves vehicles, you can do that in BeamNG
 
AMS 2, 493. Lol
So according to your very intelligent reasoning as a great specialist, the best simulation on Steam is Forza Horizon 5 (driving in the grass and forest at 350km/h, jumping from 200m high) fun!
If you have a console and no PC (which I think) I advise you to buy Mario Kart, it has sold millions and millions of copies and is very fun (banana throwing, riding a big shell) it must be the best of all the simulations according to your intelligent criteria (lol)
 
Staff
Premium
She doesn't know much about racing either, seeing her stats.
Seems a kind of mean spirited comment.
I remember she was pretty good in Ginetta juniors in the few races she entered and at least she managed to do some real life racing in a variety of series's.
 
Seems a kind of mean spirited comment.
I remember she was pretty good in Ginetta juniors in the few races she entered and at least she managed to do some real life racing in a variety of series's.
Oh I saw this post as a purely sarcastic one, nothing in it.
I've followed Sophia Flörsch on her channels right since her 2018 Macau Giau severe big accident near career ending crash, almost killing her.
Followed her interest both as a spokeswoman against the W Series (which she clerly express worried thoughts of a demeaning of racing in a larger picture), her curiosity regarding simrig and PC setups, her straight-forward explanations that everyone can understand, both introduction, her POVs, etc.

Best displayed in her original German language with thick charming Austrian dialect(German being my own 3rd language so easy to understand here), but also her English language uploads.

All very well thought out and everything oozes from a person who indeed is a racing driver deep into the spinal core.
 
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