ACC player counts in review: February 2023

It’s March, already the 3rd month of 2023. Meaning the second month of 2023, February, has been completed. This also means there is a fresh month’s worth of player data for me to go through in regard to Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC). How will February have performed against the previous months, and previous Februarys? You’ll find out this, 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:

  • February was able to match January 2023 in pretty much anything, except in terms of growth
  • The final week of February was finally stronger than its 2022 (or 2021) counterpart
  • This could potentially stop the year-on-year decline in March if this trend continues

February: comparing daily ACC player counts

Before we do dive into January’s numbers, let’s quickly recap where we left off in January (2023), which TL;DR is posted below;

  • January proved that December ’22 was not the beginning of a trend but rather an exception;
  • Player activity rose by nearly 20%, the biggest relative and absolute growth the game has seen since November 2020;
  • Players are getting hungrier for new content, but are still content with the current offering or so it seems.

January 2023’s average peak player count was 4913, which was nearly a 20% (19.89%) increase over December 2022, but still less than January 2022’s 5391. Was January 2023 a one-off? Or was February 2023 able to repeat this increase, or at the very least show similar numbers as we saw last month?

So, now, let us see what the past 28 days have brought us and find out!

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

February started out strong, with February 5th setting this month’s highest peak concurrent player count at 6038. The last time ACC had over 6000 concurrent players was on Sunday, May 8th, but this was due to a free weekend.

I don’t know if many of us are the romantic types, but after this strong start the month’s lowest concurrent player count was achieved on Tuesday, February 14th – Valentine’s Day. It’s likely that many of us chose to spend our time with our loved one instead of in our man cave.

The latter part of the month rather fizzled out in terms of player activity, resulting in a negative trendline from around 5200 to around 4700.

The same can be said about the total average daily players. Again, we see the weekend peaks as people play a lot more but more spread about the day instead of during peak hours. On weekdays, the first two weeks kept above the 2K-line, but especially in the third week this dropped down to a low of 1755 – again on Valentine’s Day.

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

Looking at the combined data of January and February 2023 in figure 2, it looks as though the winter peak is already over. After 4 subsequent increasing peaks, the peaks have started getting smaller now for 3 subsequent weeks, not only for the peak concurrent numbers, but also for the average numbers.

February 2023: comparing weekly ACC player counts

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

In terms of weekly averages, the first week of February achieved an average of 5230, the highest since week 19 of 2022. Unfortunately, as became clear earlier, the subsequent weeks achieved lower averages. However, if we compare these weekly averages to 2022 and 2021 (figure 4 below), there’s one tiny upside to these numbers;

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

The 4785 average of the final week of February was higher than the same week in previous years. If this trend continues, we might put an end to the year-on-year decline we’ve been having. More on that subject later.

In 2022 though, March saw the release of the Challengers DLC pack. This gave the player counts such a boost, that only a new DLC release will be able to ensure we keep this momentum going.

February 2023: comparing monthly ACC player counts

And this brings us to the total average for this month’s player statistics. Did February as a whole improve over January?

Yes, and no.

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

February’s average of peak concurrent player counts came to 4948, which is just a tiny bit higher than January’s 4913. 35 higher, to be exact, or 0.71% (figures 6 and 7 below).

If we look at the total average player count though, we can see this had a slight decline from 2317 to 2266 (-51, or -2.23%). This mostly means that people have been playing less, but also more concentrated around peak hours.

On the other hand, this can also largely be ascribed to the fact that February had just 4 weekends, whereas January had 5. And with weekends scoring higher average player activity, this may be the reason for the difference between the increase in peak concurrent on the one hand, and the average player count on the other.

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

Earlier I said something about year-on-year growth and promised to get back to that topic later on. Well, here we are. I’ve made a new graph which should make this a bit more visible for you, my reader.

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

What you see here is a 12-month running average of the peak concurrent player count. This basically means that for each month, it takes the previous 11 months as well, adds them together, and divides them by 12. This means that any data point in the graph shows what the 365-day average would sort of have been at that point.

Note: sort of, because I did not control for the length of each month. I.e., February’s average which is only 28 days counts just as much as January’s 31 day average. I could control for the length of the month, but then again I did not feel like doing so. the metric, as is, is probably good enough.

What this graph shows is that ever since November, the year-on-year average has been declining. Not by much, and the decline itself is decreasing – which is nice. Furthermore, the year-on-year average is also higher still than where we were last year at this point in time, so not all is doom and gloom!

Looking forward to next month: March 2023

Last year, the Challengers DLC pack really boosted ACC’s player activity, but it did so only late in the month. This meant that March 2022 only had 4840 peak concurrent players. As things stand right now, ACC should be able to beat that number, meaning an end to the year-on-year decline as described above.

What would really help that, would be a new DLC release. Come on Kunos, tell us about the GT2 DLC release date already! Whereas February has historically seen the most DLC releases, last year we got one in March. I reckon it’s time, do you?

The Intercontinental GT DLC pack released February 4th 2020, and the British GT pack released on February 10th, 2021. The only outlier is 2022, when the Challengers Pack released on March 23rd.

Could we be seeing a DLC release this month? Or at least a hint toward a possible release date? Please?

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

Overview & Previous Articles

2023

  • February 2023 (avg. 4958, +0.71%)
  • January 2023 (avg. 4913, +19.89%)

2022

2021

2020

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2 Responses

  1. ACC player counts in review: March 2023 - FELIXDICIT
    April 12, 2023

    […] we do dive into March’s numbers, let’s quickly recap where we left off in February (2023), which TL;DR is posted […]

  2. ACC player counts in review: April 2023 - FELIXDICIT
    May 1, 2023

    […] February 2023 (avg. 4958, +0.71%) […]

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