Most Played Racing Games On Steam In March 2024

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Image: Xbox Game Studios
The first quarter of 2024 has flown by, meaning March is behind us. Time to take a look at the numbers of the most played racing games on Steam for the month - with the Spring Sale showing the impact of its deals.

March 2024 saw several racing titles gain considerable amounts of players - most likely due to the Steam Spring Sale happening that month. Once again, it was WRC 7 that saw an enormous boost, increasing its player base by almost 220%. This made it the most played rally title in our list again.

Meanwhile. Forza Horizon 5 passed BeamNG.drive again, the back-and-forth between the open-world racer and the sandbox title continuing for another month. The release of the European Automotive update on the final day of February might also have had something to do with it - it did add eight new cars for free, after all.

With the F1 three races into the 2024 season now, numbers have increased for both F1 23 and F1 22 again. It seems that anticipation for F1 24 is high, then - although players will have to have a little more patience until the May 31 release.

Interestingly, while the rFactor 2 player numbers remain relatively stable, it appears that the hype surrounding Le Mans Ultimate has disappeared somewhat since its release. Compared to February, the title lost over 50% of average players. Watch for a peak in the curve once VR gets added to the official WEC game, however.

Steam: Most Played Racing Titles in March 2024​

TitleAvg. playersPeakGain %
Forza Horizon 513,939.3
30,688​
15.03
BeamNG.drive12,914.9
22,839​
5.24
Assetto Corsa9,587.0
18,585​
6.12
Forza Horizon 46,588.7
17,614​
20.98
Need for Speed Heat
5,015.6​
12,723​
-13.16
F1 233,952.3
9,364​
30.28
WRC 7
2,618.2​
11,192​
219.45
Assetto Corsa Competizione2,578.4
6,069​
-5.18
Need for Speed Unbound2,362.4
6,006​
37.09
MX Bikes2,130.7
3,583​
3.21
CarX Drift Racing Online2,074.7
3,499​
-3.45
My Summer Car1,461.4
3,005​
-11.03
F1 Manager 20231,335.0
2,628​
53.41
Dirt Rally 2.0
1,029.7​
1,992​
-5.74
Trackmania811.0
1,729​
11.8
Le Mans Ultimate
752.6​
2,583​
-51.39​
Asphalt 9 Legends718.3
1,104​
-4.44
EA Sports WRC663.9
1,420​
-13.32
F1 22662.6
1,546​
59.68
Need For Speed Payback
654.9​
1,597​
-13.06
Automobilista 2
576.3​
1,423​
-1.53
Forza Motorsport571.7
1,093​
2.78
rFactor 2481.4
1,178​
-3.23
Wreckfest473.4
1,217​
13.05
Motorsport Manager
435.8​
801​
33.85​
The Crew 2413.7
727​
-1.12
RaceRoom411.9
943​
2.91
Need For Speed
382.6​
1081​
14.85​
Disney Speedstorm371.3
639​
-10.74
Need For Speed Most Wanted
313.9​
836​
9.83​
Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered
287.6​
697​
16.01​
F1 2021
280​
612​
72.38
RIDE 4278.8
794​
41.79
Mon Bazou
274.1​
543​
-6.54​
F1 Manager 2022269.2
554​
41.5
Trackmania Nations Forever
264.3​
529​
35.25​
Most Played Racing Games on Steam in February 2024 (cap at 250 avg. players; top values in bold)

What do you make of the most played racing games on Steam in March of 2024? 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

Jugulador
TzZyO said:
Have you tried AC with CSP/CM and extended physics?
Click to expand...
Yes and it only solidify my previous arguments that:

1) We are living in a golden age of modding
2) AC is a sht game
3) AC have questionable physics


pz666 said:
I wholeheartedly agree on that principle, I'm just trying to be optimistic about a day when the devs have cleared out some of the bugs that the modders won't be able to and have moved on to their next projects... Allowing platforms like AMS2 and rF2 to be taken over by the community and let many hands do the work that fewer hands couldn't... As we have seen with AC...

AC had the content side worked out, rF1 had the physics that many titles have failed to reach in the last decade... Both were taken further than they ever would reasonably be as un-moddable titles by modders and the community working together on a common cause... Improving sim racing...

No Golden age is going to come from the developers alone, as you go on to state here, they have business models that get in the way...



Outside of the SMS line I completely agree with this statement... They took the will of the people, and their money, made a tonne of money to become one of the big developers and didn't follow through with their promise of a well developed sim racing title with sophisticated physics... Not once, but 3 times did they make Turn 10 look good by giving us unrealistic buggy messes...

That whole debacle is the main reason I have hope for Rennsport... They are taking the right approach and not just dumping tonnes of content into an engine that is being merged with another engines physics... It's a decade later and one of the best physics developers on the pmotor engine is still struggling to clean up the SMS mess of simplified shift 2 physics being merged with the pmotor and SETA...

All of the small development teams in sim racing give us plenty of options, but the quality has degraded with more options... The standards of simulation set by rFactor 1 aren't met and the game elements of GTR2 aren't met either... It's a unrealistic ideal due to the economic landscape of the world, but I'd really love to see more collaboration between these passionate groups of people... They all have strengths that could be put towards the common goal of making sim racing better...
Click to expand...
About SMS... it's bad, but not worst than Renato Simeone (Reiza) tantrums against some folks criticize (politely) some particular (very questionable) aspects of his overly flawed (and flopped) game. But, yet, I don't think bad of any of these folks because I know the struggle they live and passion they have for what they do. Of course isn't an excuse for all these mistakes... I'm just watching a bigger picture.

Can't say about the future... even with all the issues I'm more a type of player that miss some good things on the past but am grateful for people still trying it. Maybe it's Rennsport, GTR3, AC2, a further patch for BNG or even Reiza doing a comeback with AMS3 or a miracle actualization for AMS2. All these developers are getting experienced, money comes and goes and when you can have fighting still can have victory.
 
T
Jugulador said:
Yes and it only solidify my previous arguments that:

1) We are living in a golden age of modding
2) AC is a sht game
3) AC have questionable physics
Click to expand...
So, you mean it like that the original AC is crap or that even with the "COSMIC" suspension it still has questionable physics?
If it's crap either way, what's your go to sim in terms of physics?
 
Jugulador
TzZyO said:
So, you mean it like that the original AC is crap or that even with the "COSMIC" suspension it still has questionable physics?
If it's crap either way, what's your go to sim in terms of physics?
Click to expand...
Can say that Raceroom is a way better sim than the vanilla AC and iRacing before became a mess (around 2011 or 2012) was a considerably cohesive simulator physicswise.

Can't tell you about this "cosmic" suspension because don't remember to have used it, but some mods (as basically any of @Fuzo 's mods) work way better than the original content.

But it's not the physics that are the worst in AC... the original AI is horrible (didn't put much test with the modded AI), the career mode is lazy, car setup is one of the worst (at least is not exploitable as with most of ISI motor games).
 
Last edited:
pz666
Jugulador said:
About SMS... it's bad, but not worst than Renato Simeone (Reiza) tantrums against some folks criticize (politely) some particular (very questionable) aspects of his overly flawed (and flopped) game. But, yet, I don't think bad of any of these folks because I know the struggle they live and passion they have for what they do. Of course isn't an excuse for all these mistakes... I'm just watching a bigger picture.

Can't say about the future... even with all the issues I'm more a type of player that miss some good things on the past but am grateful for people still trying it. Maybe it's Rennsport, GTR3, AC2, a further patch for BNG or even Reiza doing a comeback with AMS3 or a miracle actualization for AMS2. All these developers are getting experienced, money comes and goes and when you can have fighting still can have victory.
Click to expand...

Ian Bell from SMS and Renato are 2 peas from the same pod when it comes to the tantrums... I understand it's a hard engine to work on and the results are what they have been... But a lot of the stuff is things that are quick to research on correct figures or find in quality control for a fix to be seen as needed before release...

It's not just the engine was passed on when the torch was passed from SMS to Reiza...

I'll still blame the originator of the merged mess first though... If SMS had taken the proper time to go through and deal with a lot of the inherent flaws of the engine before moving onto content or sequels the story of that engine would be a very different one than it is today...

I'm the type to be hopeful about the future, grateful about the present, but realistic about the flaws that exist... And you can't improve on flaws without acknowledging them...
 
jirijunek7
TzZyO said:
I wish there was a way to tell which portion of the player base actually uses BeamNG as a sim - not as a mindless car destruction tool. This escapes quite many, but it has so much more on offer than just the questionable damage model. Would have been better if there was an option to simplify all of the cars geometry - apart from the tires - for those of us who are not into crashing.
Click to expand...
I really can't advise on that, but in any case, since I use beamng in this way, then I don't think about what the others do with it, because now beamng fulfills my purpose to 95 percent, so there are only a few mods that I live, then beamng doesn't exist, and I can play satisfaction without further waiting for mods, regardless of the fact that I have been waiting for a game that meets my purpose since the release of Rigs of Rods.
 
pz666
Zemlanin said:
@pz666, @Jugulador. The best physics is the one that gives pleasure!
Click to expand...

I get as much pleasure out of the maths involved as I do the driving feel... The driving feel and FFB is what I think most people say when they mean "best physics"...

For me it's about how sophisticated they are on top of that feel... It's why I can still enjoy AC for example... It may not be as sophisticated as other physics models, but it still produces the fizz that I'm driving tightly sprung race cars with the right mods...
 
P
Jugulador said:
Physics = Truth... one can't bent it for own pleasure. And the best physics on a simulator is the one that best resembles the reality... it's not relative or a preference wise discussion.
Click to expand...
Sorry but I had never drive F1 or GT3 cars and a good feeling by Graphics, sounds, FFB, VR,..., is the best way.
 
Cote Dazur
Zemlanin said:
The best physics is the one that gives pleasure!
Click to expand...
You are mixing two different elements, yes the goal of most SIM user is pleasure, how you get that pleasure varies from individual to individual. The physic on the other hand, is all the data we use and calculate to emulate how a véhicule behave in different circumstances. The better the data and calculation the closer the simulation is to reality. Since how we interact with the software is different from what we feel when driving a car, even with the most advanced rig, it always a compromise and physic, although important for a simulator, is not the only factor contributing to a pleasurable experience.
Pascal James said:
I had never drive F1 or GT3 cars
Click to expand...
Neither did most players, and replicating the experience exactly today is not possible. All you can hope for, is an experience that you can immerse in and with enough good input to take you there. Your brain is doing the heavy lifting, so what works for you, is what is right for you.
Physic is just one factor, important, but not the only factor that make me believe. My DD wheel and my VR, have helped me get to better immersion in all the titles I enjoy, more than the different physic interpretation of each title.
 
Last edited:
pz666
Zemlanin said:
Difficult does not mean realistic.
Click to expand...

Easy doesn't mean realistic either, difficult is more believable as real life drivers go through many talent tests before getting to the top classes...

However I said "Sophisticated" not "Difficult"... I like a good middle ground that simulates spins but can be hustled...
 
Lupo grigio
Premium
Jugulador said:
Reality don't cares about what do you know.
Click to expand...
What are realistic SIMs in your opinion? Since driving the same car in different games gives you different driving sensations?
Which is it and why, given that none of us know reality, because even if one were a driver and knew how to identify which game is closest to reality, it would only refer to one or a maximum of two cars.
Starting from the fact that at the moment there are no real simulators as there is, for example, no real simulation of damage that would compromise a race.
I agree with the Costa Azzurra analysis.
 
Jugulador
Lupo grigio said:
What are realistic SIMs in your opinion? Since driving the same car in different games gives you different driving sensations?
Which is it and why, given that none of us know reality, because even if one were a driver and knew how to identify which game is closest to reality, it would only refer to one or a maximum of two cars.
Starting from the fact that at the moment there are no real simulators as there is, for example, no real simulation of damage that would compromise a race.
I agree with the Costa Azzurra analysis.
Click to expand...
Even if you are right about "none of us know reality" and etc, the reality still what it is and the issue would be your own perception.

I will not answer your questions because I believe that you live in reality and this fact would have being self explanatory.
 
T
Lupo grigio said:
What are realistic SIMs in your opinion? Since driving the same car in different games gives you different driving sensations?
Which is it and why, given that none of us know reality, because even if one were a driver and knew how to identify which game is closest to reality, it would only refer to one or a maximum of two cars.
Starting from the fact that at the moment there are no real simulators as there is, for example, no real simulation of damage that would compromise a race.
I agree with the Costa Azzurra analysis.
Click to expand...
There is a relatively straightforward way of telling which sim is closer to reality in one physical aspect or the other - and that is why I pretty much always review any action from the trackside cams. Knowing the driver's inputs at particular moments in time, you can tell from the outside whether what the car is doing makes sense or not - especially if you have pieces of telemetry for such episodes available, both from reality and from the sims.

Most likely nobody is going to go that far for a desktop sim, but at least it's doable. Also, it's possible to achieve that even without telemetry if you are willing to delve into the world of the so called AI. Most likely, neural networks could even come up with tyre related coefficients and other values to make your virtual car's behavior match that of the actual car based just on the feeds from the trackside cams - maybe even come up with different sets of coefficients for different situations (inside, on and over the limit) that could be spline-interpolated.
 
Peter Kerényi
Lupo grigio said:
What are realistic SIMs in your opinion? Since driving the same car in different games gives you different driving sensations?
Which is it and why, given that none of us know reality, because even if one were a driver and knew how to identify which game is closest to reality, it would only refer to one or a maximum of two cars.
Starting from the fact that at the moment there are no real simulators as there is, for example, no real simulation of damage that would compromise a race.
I agree with the Costa Azzurra analysis.
Click to expand...
Considering today's established sims, I would not make a big deal deal out of it. The differences are small. As long as it feels good/natural/realistic, car movement looks realistic and provides realistic results, I would not really give it too much thought, whether it's AC or iRacing or whatever sim.

These are all video games after all, one should play what one enjoys. So what feautes these specific sims offer apart from the driving itself is very important in this sense.

Everyone is biased. Simracers often confuse great FFB with great physics. Even real drivers are biased. The fact that different IRL drivers can prefer different sims shows that they are just very close. Of course, then they gravitate towards iRacing because it has that feature of established multiplayer which is what people with competitive nature need. They can at least afford it :)

I remember David Perel, who drives a bunch of Ferrari race cars said that no 2 cars even if it's the same model drive exactly the same. How do you replicate it in a sim? You can't. How do you know "which" car is the reference. You don't.

And even if someone was able to create a 1:1 simulation of a certain car, comparing it to another "less" simulated version of the same car vs comparing to driving it IRL - the experience would be way more different when compared to driving IRL. Being in the car, feeling the forces, feeling the adrenaline, just cannot be simulated.
 
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