ACC player counts in review: October 2023

The first full month of Autumn has finished. What has the past month brought for Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC) in terms of player activity? Were people flocking back to their sim rigs now that the days are running shorter and – more importantly – colder? That is what we will try to find out in this post as we dive into the numbers set by October 2023!

A short TL;DR in advance:

  • ACC continues strongly, once again improving the Year-on-Year record second month in a row
  • ACC looks poised to keep improving the Year-on-Year record for the remainder of 2023
  • The announcement of Nordschleife means that ACC is far from done, despite AC2 looming

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.

  1. Looking back: September 2023
  2. October 2023: Comparing daily ACC player counts
  3. October 2023: Comparing weekly ACC player counts
  4. October 2023: Comparing monthly ACC player counts
  5. Looking ahead: November 2023

Looking back: September 2023

Fig. 1: Daily player counts for September 2023

Before we do look at the numbers of October 2023, though, let us look back at the numbers (fig. 1 on the right) and the TL;DR of the September 2023 review below.

  • Average peak concurrent player activity rose by nearly 16% to 4721
  • Most of this can be ascribed to the free weekend which increased activity from 14 to 18th September
  • This caused the Year-on-Year average peak concurrent player count to rise to 4710, a new record!

Now that we got this out of the way, let’s see whether September 2023 was another start to the Autumn recovery!

October 2023: Comparing daily ACC player counts

Fig. 2: Peak concurrent (red) and average (grey) player counts

October was a good month to see where ACC is at in terms of player activity. There were no sales, no free weekends, no DLC releases, and nothing to boost the player activity. However, in the absence of outside factors, the player activity was very, very healthy.

There were a few peaks above 5500 with the highest monthly peak concurrent player count at 5706, and none below 4000. Far from it, the lowest peak concurrent player count was on Friday, October 6th, with 4437 players playing concurrently. For context; that’s about as high as the average peak for June and July, and 400 higher than the average for August.

The month ended stronger than it started, with an upward trendline reaching from ¬4700 to ¬5100. Interestingly, the trendline for the non-peak average shows the same absolute growth. This is most likely caused by people playing longer, and more in non-peak hours. Especially the final weekend of October showed high average activity.

Fig. 3: Daily player counts for 2023 (from January 1st to October 31st)

Taking these numbers, and putting them in the graph containing all daily peaks and averages (Figure 3, above), it is easier to see how consistent and consistently high the player count has been in October 2023. Since the free weekend in September, the player activity has stayed high. And, more importantly, seems to be climbing still to set the stage for a strong end of the year.

October 2023: Comparing weekly ACC player counts

Fig. 4: Weekly average concurrent player counts for 2023 so far.

Looking at weekly averages eliminates outliers and other statistical anomalies, and better shows trends. And the trend for this month is upwards!

After the free weekend, there was a slight decline for two weeks which we saw earlier in Figure 3. But then the peak concurrent activity recovered to levels close to the week of the free weekend. On its own merit.

Fig. 5: Weekly average peak concurrent player counts for 2023 so far (red) compared to 2022 (white) and 2021 (grey).

Compared to 2022 and 2021, these past weeks are well above the highest we’ve seen for the period of the year, ever. It’s not that much, but even 300 extra for a game that hasn’t received new content in over half a year is not something seen in many games.

Most games have their strongest periods right after their release, but ACC is more like a freight train in that regard. A slow burner, amassing more and more fuel as the fire slowly spreads.

But, how do those numbers stack up every month? Find out in the next paragraph!

October 2023: Comparing monthly ACC player counts

Fig. 6: All-time peak and average player counts

With the numbers as they are, it is probably no surprise that October 2023 surpassed September 2023. The average peak value rose from 4721 to 4924. This is a relative increase of 4.30%, or 204 in absolute numbers.

This value of 4924 brings us back to the numbers we achieved earlier in the year, when January (4913), February (4948), and March (4818) were the stepping stone from which the 2023 season update (which brought us the new Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche) released.

Fig. 7: Relative growth of monthly average peak player counts

This rise of 4.3% is rather average for this time of year, as with the exception of October 2021 we’ve seen similar numbers in previous years (figures 8 and 10 show this better).

Fig. 8: Relative growth since January 2020, grouped by month
Fig. 9: Absolute growth since January 2020
Fig. 10: Absolute growth since January 2020, grouped by month
Fig. 11: Monthly peak averages, grouped by month

Figure 11 shows the differences in peak player activity we’ve had over 12-month periods. What’s interesting to see is that there’s a pretty constant 500-600 increase in activity each October, without exception, since 2020.

This is also visible in the graph below (figure 12). It’s like those swinging silver balls on different lengths of string suddenly synching up to form one singular movement.

Fig. 12: Monthly peak concurrent averages by year

This constant increase, which for this year compared to last October is 455. Divided by 12, this difference means a 38 increase in our year-on-year average. This is once again a record, indicating that the game is currently on its strongest 12-month period, ever.

Fig. 13: 12-month running average of peak concurrent player counts

Looking ahead: November 2023

This month sets the stage for ACC’s year-end push, which is historically boosted by colder temperatures forcing people inside. With an unassisted average of 4924, November 2023 looks set to improve over November 2022’s 4443. This means we will most likely break the Year-on-Year record again. But by how much?

Historically, November has seen some content releases to the game. v1.6 brought Imola on November 18th, 2020. v1.8 brought the BMW M4 GT3 in 2021. November 2022 was lacking in that regard. But who knows, since Kunos (out of the blue) announced a 2024 Season update pack, containing the infamous Nordschleife.

Whereas I previously assumed the GT2 pack would be the final upcoming piece of DLC, it looks as though it is actually one of two farewell pieces. It remains to be seen which will be the actual last release since the GT2 pack has been MIA for quite some time. So which will come first remains unclear. And if it could be released next month, is another question mark.

But, it truly seems like ACC is not done yet, on the contrary: it is still growing stronger each year.

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

Overview & Previous Articles

2023

2022

2021

2020

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