Earlier this month, on September 4th to be precise, RaceRoom Racing Experience updated its game. This huge update did many things. Most notably, visual fidelity was upgraded quite a bit. Better lighting, better reflections, higher quality textures, all of the above came to the game. Most importantly, however, it laid the groundworks for further improvements in the engine. 3 weeks after the update dropped, though, player numbers on Steam are almost down to pre-update numbers.
What Does the Data Say?
It almost feels like the update was just a short moment of hype, followed directly by the status quo being reinstated. Let’s inspect the data and see what we can find out.
When looking at the overview of the last 30 days, we can clearly see the daily spikes of RaceRoom players going up and nearly doubling on the day the update dropped. Unfortunately, though, the number of maximum daily concurrent players looks to be gradually declining since the update.
While players numbers were steadily between 650 and 800 concurrent player peaks in the European evening, the number skyrocketed to about 1300 on the day of the update. This last weekend, on the 21st and 22nd of September, the player numbers were already down to just under 900 concurrent racers. Monday and Tuesday evening hit just under 800 players.
This comes after what seems like a drought in players in recent weeks. When looking at the entire last year of data, we can clearly see a bit of a pit in peak concurrent players after July 2024.
Why Could This Drop Have Happened?
It surely seems like this short spurt in concurrent players comes just from the hype surrounding the update. Many former or less active players will have come back to try what changed and also play the new content. However, it seems like the update wasn’t quite enough to keep the returners engaged. We’ll have to see where the concurrent player numbers level out though, before we can really finish a call on this.
The player numbers might be level already now, however they might still fall a bit or might increase again. Even still, it does look like pre-update numbers will become the norm again. Unfortunately this means that the revitalisation of RaceRoom has not happened this update.
Still, RaceRoom hasn’t stopped improving and will continue to try and do so steadily.
What Could Save RaceRoom?
Loads of features are constantly requested. However, we got the news in a recent Interview with the developing studio’s head Jean-Francois (JF) Chardon. The video, titled “RaceRoom Grid Talk 2024 – Episode 1” suggests that the studio plans to improve communications with the public going forward.
In any case, the Interview with JF Chardon gave the public a good look into what exactly is missing. According to the studio head, a big challenge is working with the aging codebase. The engine of RaceRoom is quite old and none of the original developers from that time are still with the team. So a major part of moving forward is finding a senior C++ programmer who can look into the old code base and adapt it over time.
If you want to apply to this role, by the way, you can do so via the KW Studios’ website. It’s even a remote job! So if you are interested in working in this space, go check out their job listing.
The big problem with the old engine is that it cannot do more than it’s programmed to. Of course it can’t, but that is the reason there is no day/night progression, weather, driver swaps and many more of the often requested additions.
Content-wise, RaceRoom is in a great place. Offering ludicrous variety in modern and historic cars is a line-up only set to increase with the renewed DTM partnership. The technical aspects on the platform are most likely the main point keeping people away now.
RaceRoom’s Future
What we can really hope for is that KW Studios find the talent they require as soon as possible. If they can bring the engine up-to-date and maintain it, RaceRoom will surely be capable of enabling an engrossing sim racing experience for enthusiasts around the world.
Personally, I believe it’s currently already capable of that. It’s just not enough for many other people, it seems. The physics and handling model of the sim are absolutely up to par. And it feels like that is a very hard part to get right.
In the meantime, we can only wait and see what will really happen.
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