iRacing Players Have Racked Up 3 Billion Laps

More like 3 billion dollars in subscription revenue.

I’m going to type for a minute and try not to bore anyone or sound negative for any newcomers, as iRacing is a fantastic, competitive sim. For awhile that is.

Awhile back I dove hard into the potential happy money pit that is sim racing.

My paycheck chased the expensive gear, built PCs, subscribed to the crap elitist Racedepartment mantra (albeit they seem to dislike iRacing over there) maxed out a credit card and had the wife quite unhappy with the whole affair.
Not just in financial expenditures, but in family time lost to the hobby.

When the quarantine began I thought it surely would mean a few weeks of sim racing heaven. I was wrong, and boredom soon set in with competitive racing, which I suspect has been creeping up on me this past year.

Staring at iRacing and this $1500 DD wheel as the race ending credits showed me finishing 9th, I had forgotten why I sim race.

I shut it all down then two weeks ago downloaded Forza Motorsport 7, again.

It made me laugh and smile, felt like it was 2003 and I was playing Gran Turismo.

I guess what I’m trying to say to the kids on deck is after 20 years of sim racing just have fun with it.
If iRacing is something your considering, great. Just don’t burn yourself or your wallet out over it because honestly in the end you’ll have more fun just racing around in your custom ride with friends.
 
I am not sure why iRacing felt the need to pat themselves on the back with such a claim that can so very easily be eclipsed by other racing games... NFS, Forza and GT each one of them can overshadow that claim within a minute...

Trying to measure themselves against the "big boys" will surely set iRacing up for failure...

Good on iRacing, but kinda meaningless i think...
 
I am not sure why iRacing felt the need to pat themselves on the back with such a claim that can so very easily be eclipsed by other racing games... NFS, Forza and GT each one of them can overshadow that claim within a minute...

Trying to measure themselves against the "big boys" will surely set iRacing up for failure...

And then there's a more blunt observation that makes this even more strange: The lack of a competitor. Frankly, iRacing has NO competitors to speak of. Sure people will bring up rFactor 2 and Assetto Corsa just purely due to the platform but honestly, they are not even remotely close purely due to its format (Which has no career mode or anything offline and it's purely online, something neither of those 2 do). So to pat themselves on the back like this while having no real equal Competition is like congratulating yourself on a "Hard Fought" Race after you obliterated a field of Pilbeam MP84s and Lola B2K/40s with a Peugeot 908.
 
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I am not sure why iRacing felt the need to pat themselves on the back with such a claim that can so very easily be eclipsed by other racing games... NFS, Forza and GT each one of them can overshadow that claim within a minute...

Trying to measure themselves against the "big boys" will surely set iRacing up for failure...

Good on iRacing, but kinda meaningless i think...

Because hitting a milestone is something worth celebrating?

It's true, iRacing will never hit the player activity numbers of any of those three. But it's a bit like saying no studio should ever bother crowing about a movie's box office figure if it can't eclipse Avengers. ;)
 
After all those laps and all the subscription money they have earned you would think they would actually put in a decent graphics engine and some QOL features instead of the barebones beta looking title it still is to this day. I keep thinking it will change and I'll renew my subscription but it never does. Hoping a title in the future like Rfactor3/AMS3 decides to go all out as a competitor pump the graphics up, features even better handling model etc. iRacing is still the 'status' thing for most of its users, "oh you race that? well I race iRacing online"
 
After all those laps and all the subscription money they have earned you would think they would actually put in a decent graphics engine and some QOL features instead of the barebones beta looking title it still is to this day. I keep thinking it will change and I'll renew my subscription but it never does. Hoping a title in the future like Rfactor3/AMS3 decides to go all out as a competitor pump the graphics up, features even better handling model etc. iRacing is still the 'status' thing for most of its users, "oh you race that? well I race iRacing online"

Ahh another ... But but iRacings graphics are poor response ... Sure they are poor if you trying to run it on a potato, but at the same time why would they make it so you can only run it on a $5000 super computer.... That would cut the potential user base by a massive amount... They still have to make it accessible to as many as possible.
My PC is probably just above a mid range level, and to be honest I have no complaints about how it looks... And well, if your in the middle of a heated battle, and your sitting there saying that tree or grandstand look like PS2 graphics... Then your doing it wrong !
The funny thing is you mention Rfactor ... For me Rf2 looks like it could run on a PS2 .... I wouldn't hold out much hope that a Rf3 suddenly busts out real life graphics :lol:.

And in regards to the status thing ... Anyone who acts like that isn't worth wasting your time on anyway... My guess is most users are there for the easy access to some of the most competitive racing you can find online.

All this waiting for the perfect sim racing game... its not going happen... jump on your favorite platform now, race now and enjoy the journey of development we are all going through.
 
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