How many active players in iRacing now?
 

Since they dropped the prices quite a while ago, I assume that
the number of active players has increased quite a bit. Anyone
here know how many active players and how many current iRacing
subscribers there are now? Last I recall it had increased from
around 10,000 to 14,000, quite a few players, but far short of
what would be needed to pay off the original $20 million
investment in 3 or 4 years.

How many active players in iRacing now?
 

How many active players in iRacing now?
 

On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:47:44 -0700, "rcgldr" > wrote:

>Since they dropped the prices quite a while ago, I assume that
>the number of active players has increased quite a bit. Anyone
>here know how many active players and how many current iRacing
>subscribers there are now? Last I recall it had increased from
>around 10,000 to 14,000, quite a few players, but far short of
>what would be needed to pay off the original $20 million
>investment in 3 or 4 years.
>
>
>
>
>

I did the Beta test and think that this is hands down the best sim out
there, however I dont think the package the way it is done will ever
be profitable without a stand alone box product. I would love if they
would release this as a product I could buy, because simply the cost
of the current setup adding cars tracks etc cost more than what a
boxed product would. My idea would be for them to do a sim product
release it and then charge a monetary fee for online service or
something like that.

How many active players in iRacing now?
 

On Wed, 31 Mar 2010 21:22:08 -0400, Russell Unger wrote:
> I did the Beta test and think that this is hands down the best sim out
> there, however I dont think the package the way it is done will ever
> be profitable without a stand alone box product. I would love if they
> would release this as a product I could buy, because simply the cost
> of the current setup adding cars tracks etc cost more than what a
> boxed product would. My idea would be for them to do a sim product
> release it and then charge a monetary fee for online service or
> something like that.

Couldn't agree more. I also beta tested for 2 years, subscribed
for six months but I always HATED the incident system and the fact
that I only "licensed" the content, but never owned anything of it.

Uwe

How many active players in iRacing now?
 

> I would love if they would release this as a product I could buy

I never understood the online service as a business model, unless
they really over-estimated the number of active subscribers when
they started this. Initially the physics still needed tweaking,
and there wasn't a lot of content (cars and tracks), but
there is enough content now to release a stand alone game, and
given the fact that there aren't any other new sim-oriented racing
games being released now (when is rFactor 2 supposed to happen?),
sales should be good for a sim-oriented racing game.

Who knows what will happen. I recall a few predictions that drastic
changes would happen within 3 years of release, and some of those
drastic changes, mostly price reductions and now the hosted
racing, have already occurred.

How many active players in iRacing now?
 

> Overall iRacing remains the best darned sim on the planet.... trapped within a
> structure which really annoys me much of the time.

After the high pricing, the next issue for me is the 45+ minute races. I and
most racing game players aren't willing to commit that much time to a single
game. NR2003 seemed like a time killer with essentially 2 races per hour, and
now iRacing has reduced this to 1 race per hour.

Then again, these issues and more were all posted in the "why aren't you
subscribed to iracing" thread at rsc forums. The thread went inactive 4 or
5 months ago, and now RSC is gone, (although it's name is now used for a
different forum).

Seems like the sim fans are stuck in a waiting game. iRacing pricing and/or
format isn't attractive to many players, don't know if a boxed version will
ever be sold. rFactor 2 may be a year or more away from release. And for the
few that care, Live For Speed is undergoing a "do-over" of it's "tyre physics",
which has essentially stopped progress there for over a year now.

How many active players in iRacing now?
 

How many active players in iRacing now?
 

"However the thing I still dislike most about iRacing is the fact that
it's completely isolated from the outside world. Open forums would at
least make me feel like I'm not hibernating from the real world outside."

I don't understand the private nature of the forums either. It seems to
me, if they would open them that the potential member could connect to
the iR community easier.

"Others would say it's a nice safe, warm cave, and it's very cold
outside... at least until rF2 arrives to warm things up a little. Hopefully"

I hope ISI takes their time and does rF2 right. You know, improve the
tire especially. In reality, ISI and iR should merge. Bring the best of
both worlds together which might also merge the SIM community.

iR desperately needs Spanish and Portuguese language portals for their
service.

Andrew MacPherson wrote:
> (rcgldr) wrote:
>
>> Last I recall it had increased from
>> around 10,000 to 14,000
>
> I think in excess of 20,000 have now tried the service. I believe there are
> something like 16,000 people (or at least accounts, as some people have several it
> seems) who've taken part in oval races, and about 15,500 for roads. And obviously
> many drivers will have at least tried both.
>
> But how many of those are still paying? And how many of those are driving regularly
> enough to help give the service momentum? It's very hard to be sure, and the guy
> who used to do a brilliant job of measuring weekly activity on the servers has
> given that up.
>
> However he did recently make a special appearance with some stats which seemed to
> show that active participation, after rising very significantly over the winter,
> has sunk down again as people's special offer periods come to an end. The hosted
> side of things also seems to be growing in popularity, but perhaps at the expense
> of the main service, effectively soaking up much of boost given by new membership.
>
> Overall the service is definitely busier than it was 6 months ago, but not that
> much in my experience outside the Rookie level where new members are earning their
> spurs. Numbers there have been very impressive over recent months, even off-peak
> when I race, though they've tailed off recently as people leave or graduate to the
> main classes.
>
> I rarely see peak hour racing though, and I think anyone racing in the evenings
> will be pretty happy with the choice of races and field sizes.
>
> Overall iRacing remains the best darned sim on the planet.... trapped within a
> structure which really annoys me much of the time. There are days when I wish I'd
> never joined, and there are others when I'd pay twice the price. Just not many of
> them. :-) Fortunately the England club is full of names I've "known" for many years,
> and the banter in there is good fun. However the thing I still dislike most about
> iRacing is the fact that it's completely isolated from the outside world. Open
> forums would at least make me feel like I'm not hibernating from the real world
> outside.
>
> Others would say it's a nice safe, warm cave, and it's very cold outside... at
> least until rF2 arrives to warm things up a little. Hopefully!
>
> Andrew McP
>
>

How many active players in iRacing now?
 

"I never understood the online service as a business model, unless
they really over-estimated the number of active subscribers when
they started this."

They admit they did overestimate. But they also have ignored non-English
speaking markets. An acquaintance figured out how to count unique keys
for NR2003 that logged into the arena and it was only 55000. A game that
was a revered as that probably gave us a more accurate count of how many
"hardcore" SIM racers there really is in the world. So iR can't ignore
the non-English markets when trying to reach it's membership goals.

rcgldr wrote:
>> I would love if they would release this as a product I could buy
>
> I never understood the online service as a business model, unless
> they really over-estimated the number of active subscribers when
> they started this. Initially the physics still needed tweaking,
> and there wasn't a lot of content (cars and tracks), but
> there is enough content now to release a stand alone game, and
> given the fact that there aren't any other new sim-oriented racing
> games being released now (when is rFactor 2 supposed to happen?),
> sales should be good for a sim-oriented racing game.
>
> Who knows what will happen. I recall a few predictions that drastic
> changes would happen within 3 years of release, and some of those
> drastic changes, mostly price reductions and now the hosted
> racing, have already occurred.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

How many active players in iRacing now?
 

> "I never understood the online service as a business model, unless
> they really over-estimated the number of active subscribers when
> they started this."

> They admit they did overestimate.

> unique keys for NR2003, only 55000.

and that was a game where players could race on open servers running
daytona and talledega with assists on, where just about anyone could
win. A significant part of the NR2003 fan base wasn't hard core sim.

Another indicator:
Less than 9000 GPL Rank entries, and less than 4000 of those negative.