ACC player counts in review: April 2022

In last month’s Player Count in Review, we saw what the Challengers DLC meant for the player counts in the short term. However, what are the long-term effects of the DLC release? Well, now that April is over, it is time to dive into the numbers. Do you want to know how it influenced the player statistics of Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC)? Have there been new records set? Read on to find out!

In this series of articles – I’ve been doing this since March 2020 – I analyze the playercounts from Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC) using data from both steamdb and steamcharts. I implement the data into my own spreadsheets, creating my own graphics and tables.

A short TL;DR in advance:

  • ACC’s player activity has never been higher on the coattails of the Challengers DLC
  • I’ve found a total of 7 records ACC has set or broken this month, among which are weekly average and monthly average
  • The tail end of April saw numbers normalize towards the 5000 barrier.

April 2022: comparing daily player counts

If you haven’t read the TL;DR above, April set many new records for ACC. But by how much? Let’s just dive right into the numbers. Shall we?

Fig. 1: Peak concurrent player counts for April 2022

A downward trend? How can that be? Felix, you promised us there were records! Well, you gotta read the Y (vertical) axis carefully.

April 1st started with nearly 6K players, which is over 1000 more than the average of March ’22. This number quickly grew to April’s peak, 6561 concurrent players on Sunday April 3rd.

This 6561 is the first record ACC set this month: it’s the highest peak concurrent player count not within a week of a DLC release or a free weekend, and it’s the 4th highest peak concurrent player count ever:

  1. 7223 (Wednesday November 24th 2021 – v1.8 + BMW release)
  2. 6926 (Sunday June 6th 2021 – free weekend)
  3. 6623 (Wednesday March 23rd 2022 – Challengers DLC release)
  4. 6561 (Sunday April 3rd 2022 – just a sunday)

Furthermore, it is the first time the peak concurrent player count kept above 6000 for 3 days in a row. Record #2.

April’s lowest peak concurrent player count was 4671, which was set on the final day of April – Saturday April 30th. Record #3, since the previous highest lowest peak concurrent player count was 4310 in January 2022.

So yes, it is no wonder there is a downward trend (from 6K all the way down to below 5K). April started out so strongly, that it had to go down. This is best described by the graph below, which puts the April numbers into context with the peak daily concurrent player count of the rest of 2022 so far.

Figure 2: Daily peak concurrent player counts for 2022

Here we can see how strong January actually was, and the decline in February – which continued through March but stopped right above the 4K-line. The first peak was the release of the Challengers DLC in late March, followed by another dramatic decline. However, contrary to previous DLC releases, the daily peak concurrent player counts started to dramatically recover and almost surpassed the peak on the day of the DLC’s release.

April 2022: comparing weekly player counts

So, if the individual daily concurrent player counts set so many records already, surely the weekly averages did too, right?

Eh, yes. Bigly.

Fig. 3: Weekly average concurrent player counts.

The previous record for the weekly average was 5663, set in week 5 of 2022 (Jan 31st – Feb 6th). April 2022 went above that record not once, but twice. Week 13 (March 28th – April 3rd) set a new record over 400 concurrent players higher, with the new record being 6074 – record #4.

The following week was also higher than the previous record with 5789, after which the player counts normalized to about 5000-5300 on average. This is a bit below the January ’22 numbers, but still above the ‘Year-on-Year’ average (in grey in figure 3 above).

Talking about the year-on-year average, it would not surprise me if we will dip below the 2021 numbers next month, but that would not pose too much of a problem.

One more record (#5, for those keeping count) can be found in the graph above: this is the first time no weekly average dipped below 5000!

Dusting off an old graph concept, below you can see which days (on average) proved to be more popular:

Figure 4: daily peak player counts per day of the week

As you can see, Monday and Sunday prove to be a lot more popular days for racing than the other days. However, not much else can be said about this particular graph – so let us move on!

April 2022: comparing monthly player counts

With 5 records already under our belt, how many (arbitrary) records can we formulate when looking at the data based on monthly averages?

Let’s find out.

Fig. 5: All-time peak and average player counts

For starters, record #6 is a very straightforward one. The monthly average for April ’22 is the highest we’ve ever had. April’s average of 5420 is just 29 concurrent players higher than we had in January ’22, but I’ll take it.

Not just the concurrent player count set a record. Also, the average player count this month (2523) beat out January’s (2510). That’ll be #7.

Fig. 6: Relative growth since January 2020
Fig. 7: Absolute growth since January 2020

In terms of growth (both relative and absolute), this month set no new records, but it is satisfying to see this month’s growth wipe out the decline we encountered in the previous two months. With a relative growth of 11.98% (or 580 absolute), there is considerable growth to be descended, but it is still some way off the growth we saw at the start of this year.

Looking forward to May 2022 and beyond

April is our best month yet. However, most of these record-setting numbers have been reached in the first part of the month. The latter part already saw the player numbers decline towards a 5000 average, and I would not be surprised if the average for May will dip below that psychological barrier.

The upcoming decline is something that is inevitably going to happen, whether we like it or not. The past two summers each saw player activity decline, but this decline manifested itself truly in June (-8.5% in 2020, -11.4% in 2021). However, because of the high numbers we encountered in April, I would not be surprised if this decline hits a bit earlier this year.

I hope we can keep the average concurrent player count close to 5000 this month, but only time will tell if that is within the realm of possibilities.

What are your thoughts? Any prophecies you are willing to share regarding the upcoming month(s)? Let me know in the comments below, and I will see you next month for another month in review!

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5 Responses

  1. July 2, 2022

    […] March, we received the Challengers DLC for Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC). This largely affected April’s numbers. So much so, that even May was still riding its coattails(and that of a free weekend). I expected […]

  2. August 1, 2022

    […] April 2022 (avg. 5420, +11.98%) […]

  3. February 2, 2023

    […] April 2022 (avg. 5420, +11.98%) […]

  4. September 2, 2023

    […] April 2022 (avg. 5420, +12.0%) […]

  5. November 8, 2023

    […] April 2022 (avg. 5420, +12.0%) […]

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