ACC player counts in review: April 2023

With the release of the 2023 GTWC DLC pack, Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC) was expected by many (myself included) to set new records in terms of player statistics. Now that the numbers are in, all that remains is to review the numbers. Are any records still left standing, or did April completely obliterate all previous data? You’ll find out, and more, in this post!

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 steamdb. I implement the data into my own spreadsheets, creating my own graphics and tables.

A short TL;DR in advance:

  • New daily, weekly, and monthly records for both peak-concurrent and total average player counts. Oh yes.
  • Only one record (single month absolute growth) was not broken, due to strong numbers leading up to the DLC release
  • Year-on-year growth is maintained, for now at least.

April: comparing daily ACC player counts

Before we do dive into April’s undoubtedly record-setting numbers, let’s quickly recap where we left off in March (2023), which TL;DR is posted below;

  • Formula 1 is putting a noticeable dent in peak player activity in race weeks
  • The announcement of the new DLC release date on April 19th will most likely cause some records to be broken next month
  • This month can therefore be seen as silence before the storm, with unremarkable numbers concluding a dull month statistics-wise.

Now that the aforementioned ‘silence before the storm’ is over and the 2023 GTWC DLC pack released on April 19th, there’s probably only one question on your mind:

“How did it affect the player numbers?”

You only need to look at the graph below (i.e. figure 1) to get a good indication.

Fig. 1: Peak concurrent (red) and average (grey) player counts

Oh, no, wait a minute. Let me fix that.

Fig. 1b: Peak concurrent (red) and average (grey) player counts (with proper Y-values)

There. That’s better.

Let’s just immediately address the elephant in the room. Or should I say that massive peak on April 19th, the DLCs release date? With 9416 concurrent players, we have a new record.

The previous record, 7223 from the 24th of November 2021, was absolutely obliterated. It doesn’t even sit in the top 5 of peaks anymore, as this DLC release caused the peak-concurrent player count to go over 7223 a whopping 5 times.

But before all that, the month started at a relatively low concurrent player count. Just 3928 on April 1st. However, in the weeks to come, this number would slowly but decidedly increase to numbers safely over 5K as players bid farewell to 1.8 in anticipation of version 1.9 and the DLC. Especially the weekend prior to the release had a remarkably high average (non-peak) player count, with the averages being about 20% higher than the weekend prior.

And then, of course, the update dropped. The insanity of which is perhaps better shown through Figure 2 below:

Fig. 2: Combined peak concurrent (red) and average (grey) player counts of 2023

The update completely breaks any continuity the graphs might have been building up to, which is absolutely understandable. But still: it remains crazy to see how it practically doubles the player count, and not just for one day, but for nearly a full week.

Of course, once the novelty of the update wears off, the player count will return to a new normal. From the looks of it, this might be just about 6K or a little below, at least for a little while, until it runs back to 5K potentially by the end of this month.

Due to the update, any data on variance (the difference between the lowest and highest value) is useless, statistics-wise. Still, it might be fun to mention that it was 5488. That is a higher number than the monthly average concurrent player count we ever achieved. A useless number, but it might put things into perspective for some.

April 2023: comparing weekly ACC player counts

Fig. 3: Weekly average concurrent player counts for 2023 so far.

Another way of putting things into perspective is by looking at weekly average numbers.

As we saw in the first chapter of this post, the month started out fairly weak, with a drop in peak concurrent player counts of nearly 900, and in terms of the total average of almost 400. I do not have a good explanation for this, other than that the week before was already slightly boosted, possibly due to a sale of some sort. Yet, if we compare the drop to the week before the potentially boosted week, we are still looking at a decline of about 500 peak concurrent.

Despite this initial decline, the next week already set the stage for a big recovery, with the peak concurrent back up to 4539 and the total average to 2150. This is still below average for the year, but the week after was not.

With the 5059 peak, the 500 decline was made up for. And with a 2453 total average, the week actually set a (temporary) record at least since I am keeping track of this metric – which isn’t that long.

Temporary because, of course, that record stood no chance of surviving for another week.

The week in which the DLC was released saw a peak concurrent average of 7119 and a total average of 3294. Figure 4 shows how much more that is than our previous record average (6074, set between March 28th and April 3rd of 2022). And the final week of this month also comfortably surpassed that record.

Fig. 4: Weekly average peak concurrent player counts for 2023 so far (red) compared to 2022 (white) and 2021 (grey).

So, with all daily and weekly records broken, what about the monthly records? Well, read on to find out!

April 2023: comparing monthly ACC player counts

April 19th is almost 2/3rds into April, meaning that about 2/3rd of the month was not affected by the DLC release. Would that final third be enough to break the monthly records anyway? Well, yes. Of course it is.

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

Our previous monthly high was set last year, April 2022, with an average of 5420. This month surpassed that by some margin: 5666. The total average record was also broken, with the new record being 2696 over April ’22s 2523.

In terms of growth, this means an increase of 17.6% to the monthly player base, or 848 (figures 6 and 7 below), at least based on the peak concurrent numbers. In terms of average player activity, the increase of 2160 to 2696 means an increase of 24.8% in average activity throughout the month, including non-peak hours.

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

The absolute growth of 848 is the second-highest single-month increase after November 2020 (which saw the free release of the 2020 DLC including Imola).

Since April 2022 was our previous best month, the year-on-year average does not rise by as much as you would expect based on the 5666 monthly peak-concurrent average. But, it does turn around the negative trend that was slowly forming, and we might be able to keep above the year-on-year average come late autumn. But this depends on how the player activity will keep up during the northern hemisphere’s summer.

Fig. 8: 12-month running average of peak concurrent player counts

Looking forward to next month: May 2023

The release of the 2023 season DLC for ACC surely set a new standard for ACCs player activity. There is absolutely no way in my mind that next month will be able to surpass that. At least, for the daily and weekly records which were set this past month.

That said, the monthly averages for May 2023 might run very close to April’s. However, the peak concurrent player count is already dropping to an average of 6000, by the end of May it will most likely be around 5000, meaning a potential 5500 average.

However, May has also historically been the month in which the summer decline trend starts. Often it would still set positive growth during its tenure, but the change in trend during the month will continue all the way until September/October when the fall resurgence typically sets in.

Furthermore, with the 2023 DLC releasing, there is only one piece of known content left for ACC to release, the GT2 pack. I would not expect this anywhere before October, but I’ve been surprised in this regard before: the Challengers Pack and American Track Pack released on March 23rd and June 30th of 2022 respectively.

Beyond the GT2 pack, the future is unknown. Assetto Corsa 2 is in the works, but not much is known about that game as of yet.

What are your thoughts on the future? Let me know in the comments below!

Overview & Previous Articles

2023

2022

2021

2020

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3 Responses

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    June 5, 2023

    […] Before we do, though, let us look back at April’s record-setting numbers by looking at the TL;DR of the April 2023’s review: […]

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    September 2, 2023

    […] April 2023 (avg. 5666, +17.6%) […]

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    […] April 2023 (avg. 5666, +17.6%) […]

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