What Can Steam Chart's January Figures Tell Us About PC Racing Games?

[BP]

Good article. Been following Steamcharts too. Few thoughts:

- ETS 2. I never understood how trucking can be so popular Really, how? I know "it's relaxing to haul some cargo" but still... how? Many of those people probably play on keyboard? What's going on

- AC still going strong. Mods are endless. SOL and shaders patch has reinvigorated AC, although I don't think the numbers have been bad at any point

- Automobilista. Shockingly low for such a outstanding sim. Why everyone who plays AC (people with wheels, right?) doesn't have Automobilista already? Don't tell me all of them use VR? You're missing something great

But yes it seems that unless you're a shooter, MMO or management game (or game about hauling cargo in a truck), you're SOL (**** outta luck)

ETS2: yea, apparently there's a ton of people who keyboard and mouse ETS2 and ATS, but not everyone can afford a wheel so I understand...I played Microsoft Flight Simulator for years as a kid with the keyboard before getting my first joystick. Still though, after experiencing it on a wheel I can't imagine having any fun using a keyboard, but that's true of every upgrade I guess...pretty sure every DD Wheel owner would hate going back to a G27 for example.

AC: Yup SOL is sole reason for this (pun very much intended )...It's amazing what they pulled off and it definitely adds another reason to stick with AC for a few more years.

AMS: I know several VR sim guys personally that won't bother with AMS anymore since AC, iRacing and rF2 all have it, but I heard there's a way to get VR working with AMS, just can't remember how. A lot of people also can't get past it looking outdated compared to newer titles and the lack of licensed cars (easily remedied by a trip down RD's downloads section). It's still IMO one of the best sims out there overall, so it's their loss.

 

[mantasisg]

But how many Fanatecs are being sold ?

 

[mantasisg]

AC jumped over 2K before SOL was released.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Should be noted that Steam made the default of the then introduced game details profile privacy setting to friends only April last year, making those figures not all that accurate.

What they changed was access to see what games you own, after that "players in 2 weeks", and number of owners a game had couldn't be checked (some sites made a formula to try to guess that). The data show in Steam Charts is accurate, it's based on the number of players active in a game, this data is public since it does not identify who is the player.

 

[mr Sw1tchblade]

@mantasisg Fanatec working with xbox/ps4

 

[MarkR]

Some stats for GT Sport on PS4, I’ve no idea how accurate they are or how they are collected. If they are correct at 20k+ users per day in online mode and 7million sales overall that is a significant advantage for the console market. Maybe it’s no surprise Fanatec is marketing the PS4 Direct Drive wheel so heavily.
https://www.kudosprime.com/gts/stats.php?stat_preset=daily_sport_activity

As PS4 has 3x the install base of Xbox I’d expect lower figures for Forza 7 and Horizon 4. The Forza series used to claim 5 million players a month back in 2017!

Those are shocking figures for the likes of WRC7 and Dakar.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

https://www.kudosprime.com/fh4/stats.php?preset=playersnb
https://www.kudosprime.com/f7/stats.php?preset=playersnb

 

[raiod]

It still impress me how much people play ETS2, when I used to play it before it was launched on steam I never imagined such a success. I guess its the only simulator game that managed to move beyond the niche

 

[mr Sw1tchblade]

@MarkR
Could you also check Driveclub? Something makes me think it still have huge player base.
It means graphics yep. If you are making racing game graphics is must have. Or better do multiplayer game.

 

[mr Sw1tchblade]

It still impress me how much people play ETS2, when I used to play it before it was launched on steam I never imagined such a success. I guess its the only simulator game that managed to move beyond the niche

And now you can find ETS2 stream on twitch or youtube almost every day
I cant understand why its so popular too.

 

[Mantas Jokubauskas]

A nice list, thank you.

AC number doesn't surprise me - lots of mods, tools, plus the new Shaders Patch and so makes the game a second rFactor 1 (I think you can understand what I tried to say).
Not surprised about CM game numbers - most of their games, especially F1, are way more popular on consoles rather than PC (especially F1 games nowadays, since if you want to run the game well, you need a decent PC, plus the games tend to be plagued by various performance issues (the amount of lagspikes in F1 2018 anyone?)). Plus, regarding F1 games, people who follow the sport want to drive the newest cars, so to come back to an older game is just for nostalgia, mostly. (Also not surprised by Dirt 4 vs Dirt Rally, Dirt 4 from what I've heard was underwhelming.) Another thing to add to the CM games problem, they tend to NOT be in VR (so the VR or no buy crowd avoid them, even if the games are somewhat good)...
A bit surprised to see The Crew 2 having such a player number. That game was and still is bad, in my opinion...
Slightly surprised to see rF2 not having that many people on average (I might argue that the average through Jan 2019 was slightly above that, first look into the graph shows me average of 900... probably monthly peak average), but to be fair, the promised big updates of the UI are taking a bit long now and game now needs some physics, AI updates/fixes and new "features" (I mean, mandatory pitstops option should be implemented finally... One can only hope). Hopefully they will finally manage to do that new UI this year.
Also I'm slightly worried for ACC - while I understand all that Early-Access and WIP, but having such a low number right now might not help in the future, but here's hoping I'm wrong about this.

(also sorry for the wall of text)

 

[Durge Driven]

Who cares ? you drive what you like, not because more people play it

None of my friends have Beam and I been told by "experts" it is not more a sim then any other arcade title

How would you know if you never tried it

 

[David Wright]

Btw, is there a way to find out roughly how many sales there are for each title?

Figures up to 1 July 2018 are available for games with Steam achievements

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018...-precise-player-count-for-thousands-of-games/

GTA 5 12.6 million
ETS 2 6.0 million
Grid 2 1.5 million
Dirt Rally 1.1 million
Project Cars 974 K
Assetto Corsa 826 K
BeamNG.drive 804 K
F1 2017 386 K
F1 2016 318 K
Dirt 4 271 K
Project Cars 2 265 K
rFactor2 75 K
Automobilista 49 K
WRC 7 38K

Sales are time dependent. For example in the first 10 months PCARs1 sold around 370,000 copies and after 37 months the total had risen to 974,000. So be careful directly comparing the totals for a game which has only been on sale for a few months with another which has been on sale for years.

 

[Jason Mullin]

If I were a young man or had a young child, I'd definitely give them the opportunity to race with a sim.

I tried with my 11 year old son.

Here is a new PS4, a new T150, Assetto Corsa, some 2x4s, and an office chair. Dad, what are the 2x4s for? Spent an hour throwing together a quick wheel stand.
Two hours later he's playing Fortnight with his friends, hasn't touched the wheel in weeks.

Shocking numbers for Automobilista indeed.

 

[Durge Driven]

Agree, can't believe AMS is lower then rf2 ..........must be a mistake

maybe rF2 counts a owners non steam and steam version as 2

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

ETS is effing popular...
It's early days... but ACC is not doing well, dunno if how heavy the game is to run and the focus on one series were good ideas.

I would've prefered AC2 myself, just like i prefer SOL AC to ACC.

 

[kondor999]

I tried with my 11 year old son.

Here is a new PS4, a new T150, Assetto Corsa, some 2x4s, and an office chair. Dad, what are the 2x4s for? Spent an hour throwing together a quick wheel stand.
Two hours later he's playing Fortnight with his friends, hasn't touched the wheel in weeks.

Shocking numbers for Automobilista indeed.

My 5.5 year old loves Assetto Corsa (remapped throttle to right paddle shift, brake to left). He drives the hell out the spec Miata lol

 

[kondor999]

The low numbers for the serious sims shouldn't be a surprise.

To really enjoy something like AC/PC2/rF2/R3E, you need a FFB wheel, pedals and seat/rig - Along with a place to keep it set up and (probably) a dedicated monitor/TV. That was always going to be an exceedingly rare slice of gamers.

History is littered with examples of failed add-on-hardware-requiring games. Everything from Xbox Kinect to Nintendo 64DD to NES lightguns: They all had a really hard time gaining traction (and you're talking to an owner of this:

What's more surprising to me (and this is a real victory for sim racing) is just how many people do have these expensive peripherals. I think it's unprecedented in the history of gaming.

 

[E304LIFE]

Boys used to like cars, now I don't know what the heck is going on. We used to have a lot of students hang around the high school (weekends) just to check out all the cars that would park (show "n" shine). But now the kids are watching "others" play video games instead of playing themselves....

These Steam numbers don't surprise me. What I thought was cool and fun is totally different to what the kids these days think I guess.

 

[TrumpetReich]

Race 07 having 22 people at an time on average is just hilarious. Not knocking it, but that made me laugh.