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

[R1Joel]

I think it's a little unfair to be comparing AAA titles like Forza and GT to dedicated sim titles.
To me (disregarding price), it's like comparing the sales figures of a Ferrari 488 to that of a VW Golf or Ford Focus. The Ferrari is going for a niche market while the VW and Ford are going for a large slice of the market.
As has been said, to play any of the popular sims on PC you really need a wheel and pedal setup and people in general seem to know this. But GT and Forza and designed to be used with a controller which every single console comes with. I would have to guess that the wheel users on these titles would be somewhere around 5%?
It would also be interesting to see how 'engaged' the average player is. I have put countless hours into iRacing and AMS with some on rF2 as well. I am going to assume a lot of 'casual' racing gamers buy a AAA title, play it a few times and go back to Fortnite, Battlefield etc.

 

[CobraCat]

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

Physics and FFB in the latest version of BeamNG are quite nice IMO. Cars have weight, understeer, oversteer, reduced grip pending road surface ie; dirt, concrete, etc. The police chase scenarios are a blast, especially on the Italy map. Controlling the Crown Victoria style police car takes some effort for sure. A big heavy car with low HP isn't the best choice when chasing suspects, hahah.

Its definitely not an arcade racer.

 

[Durge Driven]

That is my opinion too more should try it I think

put it this way if Wreckfest only had stunts I would rather Beam

Was very few inputs in this thread I started..........
https://www.racedepartment.com/thre...-it-is-more-of-a-sim-then-90-of-these.162762/

I only did it to show there is no Beam forum and I meant 90% of everything in that section not 90% of all sims

 

[Dirk Steffen]

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)

Those numbers only show ACTIVE users of said titles, not sales. I am guessing that most people who are serious about sim racing have bought not only one title but will have bought several titles.
It is just that humans have only a limited amount of time for sim racing and naturally will choose to spend their time with what they find most rewarding.

Personally I have bought ALL available sim racing titles with the only exception being iRacing.
I just so happen to spend by far the largest amount of my sim racing time with Assetto Corsa as it provides the best allaround package for me.

Wow, that's a lot of players still in AC, without peoples who use Content Manager too.

I would assume that Content Manager users are counted within those numbers as there still is a Steam check when the actual software is launched.

Numbers surely do not include those who have obtained and use a pirated copy of AC but those can roast in hell anyway ;-)

 

[jven]

We've got 500+ drivers at simracing.club doing rF2 VEC and VLMS. ...

Oh? Then I've got to check out simracing.club.

I was curious about ETS, which is a very curious thing already, as to whether it included ATS figures or they are separate? So I just checked and they are indeed separate, and while ATS is also in the Top 100 list, ETS appears to have a much larger player base.

What they probably need to do is add guns to ATS to make it more realistic.
Then it will be like ATS = (ETS + Mad Max) = GTA5 and the developers of ETS/ATS can have a Top 10 seller for the next 10 years. I mean, who doesn't want to have a Remington 870 in the back of their cab?

 

[2stains]

without peoples who use Content Manager too

I haven't noticed, doesn't CM start up Steam to run AC? I'm a bit sad if it doesn't, I like to keep track of time.

 

[Durge Driven]

Yes Steam opens behind AC loader screen
Difference being Steam window retains last game was selected/highlighted

 

[Dirk Steffen]

I haven't noticed, doesn't CM start up Steam to run AC? I'm a bit sad if it doesn't, I like to keep track of time.

Yes Steam opens behind AC loader screen
Difference being Steam window retains last game was selected/highlighted

Content Manager has no influence on how Steam registers your use of Assetto Corsa.

 

[Durge Driven]

Content Manager has no influence on how Steam registers your use of Assetto Corsa.

Never said it did, I just answered question, yes steam opens

If you played rF2 last in steam then run CM , close CM close Steam open Steam ................rF2 will still be selected/highlighted not AC

That is all I said..............

 

[Bobby Pennington]

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

Thank you so much David. Good info. Hope we always have pc sims, but the numbers are against us a little bit.

 

[Bobby Pennington]

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.

You're just being a great dad giving him a chance. One day he'll appreciate all the opportunities you gave him. Who knows, he may even start driving. Two things I know about us men folk are girls and cars always get us

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Content Manager has no influence on how Steam registers your use of Assetto Corsa.

I believe with CM Steam counts only time spent in actual races, when with AC launcher is whenever you launch AC.

 

[Durge Driven]

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

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

Developers are problem 10 pertain to have most realistic model and then we go on and on debating it but get no closer to solution
In Unreal shooters ( millions of users ) do thousands complain about how different the same gun shoots in 2 sims ? etc etc

That is why imho if we want to attract tens of thousands we need your own universal sim engine with separate builds for both Pro and Casual
I mean it is enough drama for most people to lose interest because they
can't get good feeling FFB ...remember the majority don't come to sim sites !

So if you had a universal engine every controller gets supported would be the same in all sims ....with minor adjustments in core for different cars of course

Same car in 2 sims should feel the same otherwise it contradicts everything physical ...no wonder they rather kill.

 

[FeltHat]

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.

not to mention, half of those games were in bundles or even given away for free

 

[FeltHat]

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.

i gave my by the time 26 years old brother automobilista to try, he said he wanted to play need for speed after one corner

 

[Case_]

But now the kids are watching "others" play video games instead of playing themselves....

It never ceases to amaze me how the generation that grew up glued to TV screens fails to understand the fundamentals of the forms of entertainment of another, just slightly younger generation, and even expresses contempt about it.

Also, the solution seems to be fairly obvious - we need more simracing streamers that are entertaining to watch to appeal to a different generation.

 

[Ville-Samuli Mutanen]

Dirt 4 302 - No VR
Project Cars 257 - VR but replaced with a new title
F1 2017 216 - No VR
Assetto Corsa Competizione 155 - Bad VR
Automobilista 120 - No VR
F1 2016 62 - No VR
WRC 7 61 - No VR
Dakar 18 35 - No VR
Race 07 22- No VR
KartKraft 11 - No VR

No VR = No play confirmed?

 

[Celestiale]

Seeing the huge numbers of ETS2, i wonder why they don't manage better performance and better VR implementation then the niche titles (but worse).

 

[apex11]

These mean nothing to me really as console is the bigger part of the pie and also many play single player anyway...

But i love how you get the hardcore still playing the 'old' titles. And i love how lonely kartkraft is...

 

[MarcG]

What I find interesting is the dedicated F1 game not being top of the pile by a long way, I kinda expected it to be up there so quite surprised it isn't. Nice article, thanks