ACC player counts in review: November 2021

Last month, as I wrote in my October review, I had given up hope of seeing the 1.8 update of ACC in 2021. Of course, this turned out to be nothing but another commentator’s curse. On Wednesday the 24th of November, the update finally dropped. In this episode of “Playercount in review”, I’ll dive into the numbers to see what this update has brought us in terms of player activity.

Spoiler alert: a whole damn lot.

A short TL;DR in advance:

  • November 2021 started out with a slight decline, with numbers dropping from ~3900 to ~3500;
  • The update brought a new concurrent playercount record (7223, previously 6926 on June 6th);
  • Changes to the CP system of races might reinvigorate daily activity, but it is too soon to tell.

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.

November 2021 player counts

Fig. 1: Peak concurrent player counts

October saw consolidation (or stagnation) at around 3800 concurrent players. November started out similarly but saw a decline after the first week as can be seen above. This culminated in a new low of 3273 concurrent players on November 12th. Numbers started to recover (creeping back towards the 4K line), especially after Kunos announced the impending release of v1.8 on November 20th.

The average concurrent player count before the update was 3698, which is 102 lower than last month’s average. However, the update changed all of that.

ALL. of that.

The update dropped on November 24th at around 1600 hours CET. In a matter of hours, the concurrent player count went up to a whopping 7223, a new record.

The following days, the enthusiasm understandably dropped a bit, but at the time of writing the peak concurrent player count keeps well above the 5K line. However, if you look at figure 2 below, you can see how big this update was in terms of boosted player activity relative to other updates.

Fig. 2: effect of updates on player counts

In the graph above, the day before the update is taken as 100%. Each subsequent day is measured against this ‘day 0’. You can clearly see how great the influence of this update is on player counts, with a 210% rise in player numbers. The only other big update which comes near was the release of v1.3 with the IGTC DLC, ACC’s first DLC pack.

Even the decline shows similarity, but we need to wait a bit longer to see how the lasting effect of this update affects player numbers. Given enough time, I might write a post digging further into this.

Fig. 3: Weekly average concurrent player counts.

The first week of November had an average of 3876, but it soon dipped down to 3522. The third week recovered to 3703, while the fourth and final week saw an enormous rise to 5240. Unfortunately, that is not a record, as week 22 saw an average peak concurrent player count of 5292 – caused by a free weekend.

Fig. 4: All-time peak and average player counts

On average, November saw 4212 peak concurrent players. We need to wait to be able to say whether this is purely down to the update, or if the update has long lasting effects on player activity. However, seeing this upwards trend once again is a relief.

The average of 4212 is growth of 412 over last month’s 3800. This is the biggest absolute growth since January 2021 (+483), as can be seen in figure 5 below.

Fig. 5: Absolute growth since January 2020

Equally, the relative growth is the biggest since January 2021 with a whopping plus of 10.84% (figure 6).

Fig. 6: Relative growth since January 2020

Looking ahead (December 2021 and beyond)

Summarizing: the 1.8 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.

On the other hand, the numbers as presented in this post are heavily skewed due to the update. We need to wait at least one more week to be able to see whether the effect it has had is a long term one.

However, there are still things to look out for in the near future. Not only is the Lamborghini Huracan SuperTrofeo EVO2 confirmed for early 2022, the keynote video also teased three other cars: the Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo, the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 992 and the BMW M2 ClubSport Racing.

I believe the Ferrari and Porsche could be bundled with the Lamborghini in a GTC/Open Class DLC.

Furthermore, Circuit of the Americas was also teased. This points to Kunos working on a GT World Challenge America DLC. This could be bunled with the BMW M2 CS, which is in a separate junior series (TCX) in the GTWC America pre-programme.

Lambo on COTA
Porsche on COTA
Ferrari on COTA
BMW M2 on COTA

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

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  1. January 9, 2022

    […] November 2021 (avg. 4212, +10.8%) […]

  2. April 5, 2022

    […] November 2021 (avg. 4212, +10.8%) […]

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    […] November 2021 (avg. 4212, +10.8%) […]

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