ACC player counts in review: December 2021

Hey. You. Yes, you. Happy new year! It’s January 1st, 2022. Another year has flown, or rather ‘raced’, by. As I’m preparing my upcoming “2021 Playercounts in review”, first I’ll look back on December 2021 in this post. How did Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC) perform this past month, and can we take any conclusions from it?

Last month, November 2021, we had the v1.8 update, which added the 2022 BMW M4 GT3 car and a host of quality of life upgrades. I suspected that, at the time of writing the previous article, we hadn’t seen the tail-end of the influence the update had on ACC’s player count. With another month done and dusted, let us see if the boost in popularity had long-term effects or if it was just a temporary fling.

A short TL;DR in advance:

  • December is riding the coattails of the v1.8 update showing another month of strong growth;
  • Last month’s growth (10.8%, or 412 players) is nearly repeated (9.1%, or 383 players);
  • Holidays (Christmas Eve & Day, New Year’s Eve) make for a chaotic end of the year in terms of player numbers.

In this series of articles 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.

December 2021 player count

Fig. 1: Peak concurrent player counts

For a bit of context, November ended with a new ATH at 7223 concurrent players. It kept the numbers well above 5K until at least November 30th, and it scored an average concurrent player count of 4212.

I’m happy to say that, while there was still a slight decline of concurrent player counts, it seems that the v1.8 is going to have a long-term (positive) impact on player activity, judging from figure 1 above alone.

The first half of December showed strong activity, with player counts only sparingly dipping below 4500. Around halfway through December, this decreased to about 4200. Only for it to dip down greatly for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (and later for New Year’s Eve as well).

And yet, while Christmas Eve scored a measly 3126 concurrent players as drivers were gorging themselves on Turkey or whatever, after Christmas the game had 4 consecutive days with concurrent player peaks above 5K, culminating on a monthly high of 5276 on December 30th.

Interestingly, a near-exact same trend during the Holidays was seen in December 2020.

Fig. 2: Weekly average concurrent player counts.

This is further reflected in the weekly averages, even though the current week hasn’t run its course yet, it is currently on its way towards a 4900 average. Higher than the second week of December, as seen in the graph above (figure 2).

Therefore, the steep decline in the graph above to 3986 is not indicative of the current trend. But what is indicative of current trends, is figure 3.

Fig. 3: All-time peak and average player counts

December takes November’s growth rate and just about copies it to a tee. We do have to keep in mind that this growth is still boosted by the effects of the v1.8 update. However, a growth rate just below 10% (383 in absolute numbers, as seen below in figures 4 and 5) is a very nice thing to behold.

Interestingly, the average player count (non-concurrent) grew by nearly 16%, meaning that people are playing relatively longer (or more spread out over the day). Either of the two could be the case since the holidays give people loads more free time (except for me, who still has to work in between and writes blogposts like this one on the weekend. Poor me).

Fig. 4: Relative growth since January 2020
Fig. 5: Absolute growth since January 2020

Looking ahead (2022!)

Summarizing, I am going to steal last month’s summary and just reuse it word for word:

the v1.8 update reinvigorated ACC. I have no doubt that the new competition server system is partially the cause of this. More frequent, shorter races make them more accessible for a quick shot at glory.

November 2021 playercount in review

You might think I am a bit tight-lipped in this player count in review, and you might be right. I am trying to save the juicy stuff for the “ACC in 2021” look-back, which I am yet to write but am already convinced will be worth the wait for you to read.

2022 is going to be an interesting year on multiple fronts. At what rate will Kunos be able to publish DLC? Will people stay interested in ACC? How is the confirmed-but-unknown next-gen Assetto Corsa going to influence ACC’s development cycles?

Whatever is the case, we will need to wait and see. The future is, once again, bright!

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