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

ShredatorFIN · Feb 4, 2019

neuer31 said:
ACC "leading rain physics" many people would disagree and point to Project CARS 2

Patrick van der Meulen · Feb 4, 2019

apex11 said:
Everyone seems to be missing the point that the only current sim title with online use as a BUSINESS model is iRacing.
The rest have online functions but that isn't the defining point of them.
I doubt very much that any of the devs would care about those games online figures as they get no further money from that.

But the point with iRacing is... They are soley a subscription based game with no AI and a very strong server implementation. And by demand they are busy developing AI (though I don’t know how far they are and if it’s gonna be inplemented at all since I don’t really follow iRacing news).

So their entire focus is just different than other developers. And in the end they all got pros and cons. Some thinks developers are leechers and hate every form of paid content, others loves to pay for content to support their favorite developers.

In the end people are bitching each other on forums who got a bigger and/or better weener...

Gevatter · Feb 4, 2019

mantasisg said:
I don't get whats up about iracing falling out of category.

The tire model is prime crap.

Track temperature influences your grip more than anything else and goes so far as to allow for 1:49 times on the Nürburgring GT layout. All the little corrections you usually have to do in a corner on the limit to keep the car under control aren't really necessary in iRacing as well. You just need to find the right steering angle and keep that going. The car just grips more or less and when your rears slip you're most likely gone. You also have no choice of tires, like in R3E, but that could be a design decision to keep the competition level.

The FFB is nothing spectacular but it works well enough, it just misses most of the subleties you get from rF2 or even ACC.

With all that said I wouldn't exclude iRacing from the Sim category, because everything else in regards to racing it does quite well. It all works well enough to be fun and motivating, but it could do a hell of a lot better in those areas.

Magnus Stjerneby · Feb 4, 2019

how com its over 1000 peaple that have driven the competition on raceroome in januari? is the number in steeam the number peaple play the game at the same time maby?

Stephen O'Sullivan · Feb 4, 2019

apex11 said:
My game of choice that i use the most is AC with mod cars and shaders patch and sol etc... so far away from the standard AC and Kunos have not made a penny from me in years...

I want all the racing sim games and companies to thrive, and will buy ACC when it has matured. But if Kunos were to release another manufacturer pack for Assetto Corsa that was up to the standard of the three Porsche Packs (this won't happen), I would buy it like a shot. In fact, it would be interesting to see how well such a pack sold now that Sol, Crew Chief, mod tracks, etc., have reinvigorated Assetto Corsa.

BrunoBæ · Feb 4, 2019

Gevatter said:
The tire model is prime crap.
All the little corrections you usually have to do in a corner on the limit to keep the car under control aren't really necessary in iRacing as well. You just need to find the right steering angle and keep that going. The car just grips more or less and when your rears slip you're most likely gone.
With all that said I wouldn't exclude iRacing from the Sim category, because everything else in regards to racing it does quite well. It all works well enough to be fun and motivating, but it could do a hell of a lot better in those areas.

100% agree

iRacings TM has allways been known to be some kind of on/off switch.
Like now you have grip - now you dont.

Several drivers from iRacings pro series have openly revealed that beside tweaking setups their main goal in practice is to find the speed on a track just a bit lower than when the car begins to slide.
Not because a slide is slower but because the car is mostly gone when it begins to slide.

And this is the opposite to RL racing where the constant "playing on the knife's edge" between useable sliding/drifting and to much of that - is exactly the essence of motor racing.

What is extra irritating about iRacing is that if they could just (after 10 years) produce a useable tire model - then they have the rest of their 24/7 service almost perfect (IMO).

OK "perfect" is probably a bit too much when you check their prices - but you got my picture

henrisal · Feb 4, 2019

Nice to see Wreckfest has started to build some playerbase. It had massive struggle over 2 years with 40-60 avg. Still too small though.

michelforest · Feb 4, 2019

ShredatorFIN said:
- 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

I thought the exact same thing until I tried the demo. I was hooked instantly. And mind you, I love games like Assetto Corsa, Raceroom, Assetto Corsa Competizione… But ETS2 is highly addictive once you start buying garages and trucks, hiring drivers, etc. It's a very, very well-designed game, based on a simple but effective concept.

Sharpy Bonfire · Feb 4, 2019

David Wright said:
[Sadly Steam Charts can't tell us how many play iRacing. Anecdotally it is in the same ballpark as AC.

Right now there is 3245 iRacers Online according iRacing web site.

Dirk Steffen · Feb 4, 2019

theravenousbeast said:
On the contrary, it's quite easy. You just have to dislike the most sleep inducing GT cars in the history of motorsport

To each their own but I have to say that after watching last weekends Bathurst 12h a hyperbole comment like yours is very difficult to understand by people who actually like all types of racing.

Neils on Wheels · Feb 4, 2019

For me most interesting figures are % of owners playing but we no longer have this data.

apex11 · Feb 4, 2019

Patrick van der Meulen said:
But the point with iRacing is... They are soley a subscription based game with no AI and a very strong server implementation. And by demand they are busy developing AI (though I don’t know how far they are and if it’s gonna be inplemented at all since I don’t really follow iRacing news).

So their entire focus is just different than other developers. And in the end they all got pros and cons. Some thinks developers are leechers and hate every form of paid content, others loves to pay for content to support their favorite developers.

In the end people are bitching each other on forums who got a bigger and/or better weener...

That was my point....iRacing's business model is online...... none of the other sims is.... how was that so hard to comprehend?
Let me help.... the thread is pointless as kunos / SMS / Codies don't care how many people on PC are playing games they gave up on long ago.....THEY MAKE NO MONEY FROM IT......

Raceroom gets players online with up to date competitions etc.

I'd imagine RD wanted to start a silly flame war for click baits.

Having said all of that.... kartkraft is doing well......

bsmooth · Feb 4, 2019

I must say I grew up racing GPL, and there were always conversations about the tire model in that being accurate. I also raced iRacing for a few years,and it seemed pretty accurate, but it did have some strange quirks that I could never figure out.
Very hard to catch the car though when it started to spin, always seemed more like it was either on or off.
I've heard good things about RF2, but I must say that never impressed me much either. Automobilista though did seem pretty accurate, but then again this is with no FFB, so I'm coming at this from a completely different outlook.

FeltHat · Feb 4, 2019

Neils on Wheels said:
For me most interesting figures are % of owners playing but we no longer have this data.

you have estimated number of owners and number of current players with graphs, isnt that enough?

apex11 · Feb 4, 2019

bsmooth said:
I must say I grew up racing GPL, and there were always conversations about the tire model in that being accurate. I also raced iRacing for a few years,and it seemed pretty accurate, but it did have some strange quirks that I could never figure out.
Very hard to catch the car though when it started to spin, always seemed more like it was either on or off.
I've heard good things about RF2, but I must say that never impressed me much either. Automobilista though did seem pretty accurate, but then again this is with no FFB, so I'm coming at this from a completely different outlook.

And it's starting...
Won't be long till this is a flame war.
I am out..

apex11 · Feb 4, 2019

FeltHat said:
you have estimated number of owners and number of current players with graphs, isnt that enough?

Pretend race cars used to be good at this stuff with charts.... shame he sold out to SMS.

Neils on Wheels · Feb 4, 2019

FeltHat said:
you have estimated number of owners and number of current players with graphs, isnt that enough?

They used to publish sales. Where are the estimate owners & how do they estimate this?

MarkR · Feb 4, 2019

Durge Driven said:
What is sad for me for me is the amount of gamers are killing something or each other, we would only need a few % of them

Says quite a lot about human gamer nature doesn't it, the most popular games by far are shooting other people, or shooting and stealing from other people.

Unfortunately racing communities and sim racing don't tend to be very welcoming places to get people started imo. Bigger numbers will come with more mature games with clear rules and bans for cheating. In the shooters if you are shot you are dead - no 'blame' for the incident need be assigned. Yes there is also a lot of cheating in shooting games, search out at some of the ban stats for the most popular games if you need the evidence, but the cheating is dealt with.

Because all the current racing games games have either poor or overly rules that interrupt the racing, varying degrees of poor car-car contact reactions - and no AI stewards to sort it out - race groups make up their own to someones design. As for human stewards effectiveness in racing games just take a look at the controversy they cause over on Forza. If you are lucky enough to find a group you trust, with people who race fairly and a set of rules you agree with all is well. You have to be pretty lucky though and it takes quit a bit of trial and error in my experience. I've met and raced with some great people and at the same time never experienced a more toxic and divisive niche as sim racing at other times.

If you look at the player numbers it's clear that this is a tiny niche within a niche of racing games. Like them or not Forza 7 and GT Sport are the current feeder racing games for future sim racers. Forza and GT are closer to the sim racing experience than many would like to admit. GT Sport makes gentlemanly online racing the focus of the game before even allowing people online to race each other. GT Sport also includes a decent set of track training mini games. It isn't perfect but it's a good start - sim racing seems to expect everyone to just 'get' a certain game and how it should be played with no guidance. Forza 7 ignored racing rules such as track limits and has seen a significant drop in player numbers over time - so much so they are designing race regulations back in to the game. It'll be interesting to see the uptake of the Fanatec Direct Drive wheels when they arrive for cross platform, that's when I'll make the expensive leap. In hardware terms that's going to take away another level of PC exclusivity - and I still think it's that elitist exclusivity that some PC sim racers crave more than an actual great racing experience with consistent game performance and fair rules.

The next generation of consoles and direct drive wheels will narrow the gap more than ever. I say embrace the console gamers and widen the pool of players. Racing games might then make more money for even better online experiences.