ACC player counts in review: November 2022

We’ve reached the final month of the year: December. This means it is time to look back at the second-to-last month; November. How many players (have) play(ed) Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC)? If you’re looking for the answer to that question (at least for November 2022), you’ve opened the right article.

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:

  • November ended the way it started, with a negligible (negative) growth
  • Previous November months showed a strong growth historically, breaking a trend
  • Year-on-year growth is slowly approaching negative numbers, but is still up 5%.

November 2022: comparing daily ACC player counts

Before we dive into November’s numbers and give meaning to those numbers, it’s essential to know what ACC’s player activity has been doing before the start of the month. So, let us quickly recap October (2022) (click the link to read the full article);

  • ACC traditionally sees the player count rise toward the end of the year, and October 2022 is no different
  • An increase to an average of 4469 (+6.2%), but not much growth within the month itself
  • Year-on-year growth shows a health +17.6, both in average peak concurrent and average player count.

All right, did you get that? Cool! Now we can move on to the meat of this ‘player counts in review’ and absolutely geek out on (and ascribe way too much meaning to) the numbers generated in November 2022!

Fig. 1: Peak concurrent player counts

The graph above (figure 1) plots out November 2022’s daily peak player counts. November nearly kept its lowest peak concurrent player count above 4K. Unfortunately, Friday 11th saw a peak concurrent player count of 3995, the lowest of the month.

On the high end of the spectrum, Sunday 6th performed best with a peak concurrent player count of 5099, which is also the only peak above 5K. The total variance (the difference between lowest and highest) this month was therefore 1104, just a little bit lower than October’s variance of 1113 and September’s 1172.

October was a very stable month and November is pretty much equal in this regard. With just one peak above 5K and just one below 4K, the rest of the data fits neatly in between the 4 and 5K lines. The trendline therefore also keeps nearly horizontal, just below the 4500 line in figure 1. This 2-month stability is also clearly seen in the graph below (figure 2) which plots all daily peak concurrent values for 2022 so far.

Figure 2: Daily peak concurrent player counts for 2022

The latter part, consisting of the second part of September, the whole of October and November, keeps neatly between the 4K and 5K-lines as was the case this month, except for some occasional peaks and valleys.

November 2022: comparing weekly ACC player counts

Fig. 3: Weekly average concurrent player counts.

November had 4 weeks to take an average from;

  • 31 Oct – 6 Nov: 4499
  • 7 Nov – 13 Nov: 4308
  • 14 Nov – 20 Nov: 4472
  • 21 Nov – 27 Nov: 4512

The second week’s average is decidedly lower than the other 4, which can be seen as a slight dip in figure 3 above.

The other interesting bit which can be seen in figure 3? In 2021 the average jumped from 3703 to 5420 as an update dropped which included the BMW M4 GT3 into the game. More on that later.

November 2022: comparing monthly ACC player counts

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

November’s average came to a slightly disappointing 4443, a little bit less than October 2022. Interestingly, this puts November 2022 close to November 2021 (4212) and November 2020 (4314).

In figure 5 to the right we can better see the individual paths 2022 (red), 2021 (white) and 2020 (grey) took in terms of player development.

November 2020 was the start of a great rise in player activity for ACC, while in 2021 it was the start of a resurgence following a weak summer. In 2022 however, it is rather a case of stagnation instead of growth.

Fig. 5: Monthly peak player counts for 2020, 2021 and 2022

This stagnation can perhaps better be seen by the bar charts below in figures 6 and 7. Instead of growth, November had a slight decline in player activity (26 players on average less, or -0.58%).

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

To better see how much this breaks with tradition, I have once again grouped these bar charts for 2022 (red), 2021 (white) and 2020 (grey) in figures 8 and 9 below. Where in 2021 November had an increase of 412 average peak concurrent players (or 10.84%), November 2020 had the single largest increase of players in one month in absolute numbers (+1094, or +33.98%).

Fig. 8: Relative growth since January 2020
Fig. 9: Absolute growth since January 2020

And yet, November still has a year-on-year growth of 231 players or +5.48%. This year-on-year growth is fast decreasing, however, compared to October which had a year-on-year growth of 669 peak concurrent players (+17.6%). This sharp decrease in growth might mean we might soon be talking of negative growth when comparing year-on-year, especially with December 2021 showing similar growth to November 2021.

Looking forward to December 2022 and beyond (2023!)

And that’s a wrap for November. A slightly disappointing month, for sure. But, at least it is not a decline. It’s stagnation. Which is not the end of the world, but certainly in a month that is historically a strong month of growth for ACC, stagnation can be alarming.

Last month I stated it would seem unlikely that ACC would be able to top the late fall/early winter it had in 2021/2022 in terms of growth. Now, one month later, it seems rather impossible. There have been no hints towards a DLC pack dropping anytime soon which could turn the tide.

On the other hand, Kunos has previously surprised us by announcing DLC releases one week in advance. A surprise Christmas DLC drop? A welcome gift to many simracers

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!

Overview & Previous Articles

2022

2021

2020

SOCIALS

If you want to stay on top of my latest endeavors, you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram. I also occasionally post videos on my youtube-channel if I find the time to do so.

Tags:

You may also like...

3 Responses

  1. ACC player counts in review: December 2022 - FELIXDICIT
    January 1, 2023

    […] before we do dive into December’s numbers, let’s quickly recap where we left off in November (2022), which’ TL;DR is posted […]

  2. ACC player counts in review: September 2023 - FELIXDICIT
    October 4, 2023

    […] November 2022 (avg. 4443, -0.6%) […]

  3. ACC player counts in review: October 2023 - FELIXDICIT
    November 8, 2023

    […] November 2022 (avg. 4443, -0.6%) […]

Please, let me know what you think!