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

my surprice? AUTOMOBILISTA2 +7,79% .... it's the only with positive value (among historical simracing) after F1 23 (my summer car has just been released and it is normal for it to be positive)!! Now after 1.5 upgrade it's one of the most funny simracing, not technically like ACC oor other but very, very, very funny!!!!!
OK, August isn't right month for simracing but for me remain a beautiful surprice and a compliment to REIZA for his work!
 
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Yeah, not surprised.
my surprice? AUTOMOBILISTA2 +7,79% .... it's the only with positive value (among historical simracing) after F1 23 (my summer car has just been released and it is normal for it to be positive)!! Now after 1.5 upgrade it's one of the most funny simracing, not technically like ACC oor other but very, very, very funny!!!!!
OK, August isn't right month for simracing but for me remain a beautiful surprice and a compliment to REIZA for his work!
My Summer Car has been in Early Access form since 2016...
 
Was at first reading a general decline in simracing, my early instant conclusion was Cov-19 repatriation year of new simmers ending their try, selling sim hardware and so on, also due to all latest AC mod/tool releases/upgrades of which I'd expected positive numbers for AC
But might just be the August effect as mentioned here.
Could be interesting comparing numbers August 2023 vs. August 2022.
 
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Premium
Considering that, on average, only 493 people on planet Earth were online driving AMS2 at any point over the past month (its all-time peak online usage is only 1,360 at any moment in time since its release), I would argue that its userbase has access to an above average selection of mods. The community has gifted AMS2 with realistic driver names across 100% of its content, high-quality custom liveries for many of its classes, an expanding array of additional modded cars and tracks, custom FFB files, and well-designed utilities to manage every type of mod. Moreover, few developers can claim to emulate Reiza's long-term commitment to its titles--especially when you consider that a significant number of AMS2 users already own all future official content.
 
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Almost 3 f1 games in front of rFactor 2, and people ask why they don't make F1 a sim...
To be fair, people will use the official game regardless of who is making it.

A Codemasters/EA generic racing game, ie... Grid Legends... isnt even on this list.
 
The Northern Hemisphere (which I reckon has more simracers than the Southern Hemisphere, where I belong) is enjoying its summer it seems :)

On this context, Automobilista 2's gain is even more impressive. Nice to see Reiza's work slowly paying off for them, hopefully this trend will continue. What's being cooked for 1.5.1 release (atm on internal beta) is really good, a very cohesive driving experience across a large array of classes.
 
It looks like rF2 is slowly disappearing down the list… 2022 was such a good year, but 2023 has been disappointing so far looking at new content. All focus seems to be on LMU, which is fine, as long as it becomes real. We see some news, but still almost no videos, and that for a game that is planned to be released this year.

Good to see AMS2 is improving. Besides rF2 the game I play most currently.
 
Premium
It looks like rF2 is slowly disappearing down the list… 2022 was such a good year, but 2023 has been disappointing so far looking at new content. All focus seems to be on LMU, which is fine, as long as it becomes real. We see some news, but still almost no videos, and that for a game that is planned to be released this year.

Good to see AMS2 is improving. Besides rF2 the game I play most currently.
I think the rf2 brand is poisoned now, they are just sacking it off and moving full time onto the WEC game
 
D
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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?
 
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?

It's a very realistic sandbox car game, where you can tune your car with a lot of detail, do desert runs, mountain trials, rallies, run from police, do a lot of different types of "missions", or just drive a s***tbox in the traffic.
It may not be good at circuit racing, but there's a lot of things to do and enjoy even from a simracer perspective, and it's quite the best modern rally simulation out there
 
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Premium
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?
 

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