(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