I spent a bit of time in Rfactor 2 because it was meant to be good online but I never found many online races with enough people to make it interesting, that and the seemingly obtuse and clunky interface meant that after tinkering for a few weeks I eventually gave up. Good thing I got it on a steam sale.
This isn't a particularly hot take, it's a fairly reasonable explanation. If any other game did what iRacing does for my particular tastes I might consider switching. I think a big part of your take is there's only one iRacing and they update it all the time. They're even working on a modern graphics engine. Any other game I buy will eventually stop receiving updates, and additional content for that game might not be usable in the next version. As my tastes are rather niche I need some assurance that what I drive will always be available in the next version.
until someone else makes a matchmaking system as streamlined as theirs with simplicity, iracing will always stay on top. It also provides an extremely broad range of vehicles that other games cant even afford of doing. also, people complain about the subscription but its literally the greatest wall against griefers. nobodys paying 200 dollars to grief 3 races and get banned. also the competition is incredible. when you get in high SR lobbies, the experience is wonderful.
The difference being that Spotify is essentially a distributor. The revenue from monthly subscriptions alone would not even cover the costs of R&D and license fees.
@@syko846 yes I am dense. Too dense to understand why people feel they should be able to determine something as complex as pricing structure for a business just based on what they want to pay. You not-so-dense consumers want to run them out of business by all the cars and tracks being free or only paying $25 for a perpetual license with unlimited updates. Let me try to make this so someone as dense as me gets it. If you like what a company offers then pay for it. If you don’t like it or receive enough value to justify what they want to be paid, then don’t pay. Guess what the business will decide based on how you vote with your money what pricing they need to charge or what services they can provide.
“There’s no iRacing 2” hit the nail on the head. It’s a service, which has a negative connotation these days, but it’s a service that has remained consistently cared for. Knowing it isn’t going to get abandoned for the next number is a big reason I stick around. Asobo needs to be careful, one more new flight sim and they’re going to lose their user base.
Services are meant to better. League of Legends being the best example IMO. There were no sequels or DLC splitting up the users. The F1 games would be far better if they just updated 1 version.
I stayed away for so long from iracing. Thinking to myself man it can't be worth to pay a subscription. After a 3 month trial I got hooked. Nobody does the service to race better than they do. Now I regret not starting the service sooner.
i was in this same boat i saw it go on same on steam for $25 for a year and was like welp i guess ill try it and see how it goes. im only a week or so in and i dont see myself dropping it any time soon.
I hate the pricing model, but I love that I can just jump in to a series at any time and be on the grid within 30 minutes max. I tried LFM but it turned into something I needed to plan my day around a race that’s coming in 1-3 hours.
Odd, never had that problem with LFM. In Assetto they had a Ferrari Challenge race going off every hour, and an IMSA GTP multi-class race every 2 hours which was identical to iR.
@@randomcallsign they're populated for sure, but perhaps im too low in rookies to have a plethora of options. in iracing I can do quick 10 minute races if im pressed for time
@@randomcallsign Adding to Robstunner main point. iRacing has fairly well populated grids EVERY hour of the day, not only during peak EU times like LFM. I've also tried LFM, but I it's almost dead outside of EU times.
Ofocrse it's rage bate meant to drive enagemnt like that because it's just a lie that people muyuist correct... This type of news is called tabloid and this was one of the worse examples of that... Like people would have found it hallarus if it wasn't framed as a joke and pardoy of tabloaids and what to avoid in news... But no it's so much worse then the most hated tabloaids of the past few years... Like this is easlsy worde then kotaku and katoku died because it was a laughing stock of talboids... Tghjs is just terrible and unexcusble form this channel as they know better...
4 months ago, I started my sim racing journey with AC after watching NoHesi server. But now I'm a fulltime iRacer. AC, ACC, F1... stay untouch in my library. Everyday, after finishing my work and my kid goes to bed, I race 1 hour nonstop. Sometimes race, sometimes practice. I also skip all the other games for enjoy iRacing.
For someone who doesn't know anything, really good video, no one forced me to drive iracing, it's not great but it's the best, and the lobbies are always full of drivers, racing is always available, I get about 40 dollars a year that I can spend on new tracks or cars, database about driving is in one place, and everything is available, I'm afraid that some have started to mix grand turismo as simcade and simulator, this is an expensive hobby and unfortunately not everyone can buy all that expensive equipment, it's always been like that, let the children play games on logitech equipment, I notice that there are people on iracing for whom money is not a problem, people who have businesses and careers, one more thing, I bought all the content on ACC and what they released and what I have now on at the end of that, when everyone switches to AC, nothing, your money went to waste, while he plays f1 codemasters every year, he spends about 50 euros and what do we do, nothing, let's move on. we can list endless examples. again, it works better for me on iracing, I buy one track and it's mine and when they do a rescan I have it for nothing, sorry it's a bit long message but I'm of the same opinion.
As someone else pointed out, as much as we don't like the pricing model of iRacing, it is a good way of keeping griefters away. Because almost nobody will be willing to pay a subscription just to go and crash into people intentionally, also the report system works really well, so nobody will be doing that for long before getting banned.
While I agree with the sentiment of your comment, it still doesn't justify extorting customers for individual virtual cars and tracks on top of the subscription, simply because they can.
This is a pretty negative outlook on iRacing. I've been sim racing for 20+ years and I have and still do host weekly cup races on several platforms. I will say, I finally started hosting one of my series on iRacing and it's way better to use for fair and glitch-free competition. We were using AMS2 for this series for 20 weeks and now 3 weeks after iRacing the drivers are much happier and I don't run into the same glitches and failures that I did in AMS2. Further, the BOP in something like GT3 is way better in iRacing. All of this isn't even talking about how iRacing brings a more mature and committed audience to public races.
unless there are sims that do oval racing other than iracing, i'm not sure i will have to leave it, raceroom tried but has no intentions to make it to be a thing, since it's an european studio
1-year long iRacer here. There were a few moments where I've been on the fence about the amount of time and money I've spent in it. But as I think back, iRacing introduced me to so many aspects of lower and upper-level racing that I never knew about. It really showed me just how in-depth racing is and how underrated the lower-level aspects are. In addition, the devs are some of the most dedicated I've seen nowadays and are constantly working to fix the issues that are brought up. I have no intention of canceling my subscription soon.
zzzzz most dedicated 20M a year team that hasn't upgraded the 2008 engine and has the worst FFB and tire models still to this day. Dedicated devs my ass, it's using a UI out of 2008 still lol. It uses a F2P monetization system while having a monthly subscription. AC/ACC does it for free and better lol.
@Squad44ICOhappened They're fixing the engine and the UI. It's something they've been working on for a decent amount of time now. I will admit that the tire models do need work and that it is pricy, but I still find that I'm thoroughly enjoying my time on it. Also, where'd you get 20M a year? Not trying to argue that, I'm genuinely curious.
I just started using Iracing despite it not being perfect and i won’t go back any time soon. Other than the ease of use and the variety, it was the first time where i hopped on a rookie race and didn’t get absolutely annihilated at the first turn. The licensing system and irating works good enough for everybody to try fair racing at their best ability
I feel like people don’t give iracing enough credit for putting work into the game. It has lots of issues absolutely, but they are improving the sim every chance they get in meaningful ways
iRacing to me was 100% worth all the money I’ve ever spent on it, the fun I have and the racing is amazing learning racecraft and advancing my irl racecraft, I don’t really I understand all the hate, almost everything you did in this video does have reasons behind it. It’s also just the fact that people trust iracing, they are an extremely open company, and they are extremely see through with what they are doing behind the scenes. Like the GTP issue was almost immediately acknowledged and being worked on. TLDR I like iracing but you can have your own opinion on it
I have subscribed since 12/13/2014, bought over 70 cars and 60 tracks. I don't miss the money at all. Happy to have spent it with a company like iRacing. As a simulator, iRacing is not just like racing a real car but the laser scanned tracks make it the best simulator to prepare for an actual race at a specific track.
For people with economy based on dollar or euro, it's easy to stay with iRacing and buy basically everything the sim offers, but that's not the situation of the biggest part of the world, for them, iRacing is a big waste of money if you are not really focused on being professional. Simulators like AMS2, ACC and LMU are the best option for the rest
iRacing is like being in a loyal marriage, you'll tough it out no matter how tempting others can be. It'll take a massive screwup on iRacing's part to drive people away instead of another sim doing everything right/better.
Have a week of racing rf2 and have bugs mess your race up. It’s usually because if you don’t have experience setting up rf2 you’ll have problems. If you’re lucky and have a good league there’s no comparison, same with LMU. The problem with rf2c todays world people don’t have much time so, they do the plug n play iracing even though it’s like crap driving. Don’t get close to anyone, netcode will kill ya or send ya too the moon
@@RacingWithChuck27 And that's what this video is about, people love the iRacing service no matter if the underlying physics/sim isn't as true to life as what other sims attempt to do. There's more to a top-tier sim than the physics.
You've absolutely nailed it my man. I used to only run ACC, mock people paying so much for iRacing. Umtil I tried it (via an FIA/UKM promotion) and since then I've been hooked. It's far from perfect & the pricing model does jar but that income stream makes it head & shoulders above the rest for robust, competitive online multiplayer. And in the coming months major changes are planned for the UI, graphics and tyre model which will significantly improve it in areas where it's sub-par.
Agreed. I think it was Dj yeejay that mentioned that they weren’t profitable until 2020, and it makes sense when you realize the ramp up in the amount of updates they’ve been working since then. The criticism is valid but only for so long. (Except for pricing, thats staying up there)
Being hard core iRacer from 2011 and driving many different sims the last few years i still feel happier with iRacing driving experience the most and i often say to people to not trust my opinion for the reasons you expressed 😁
13 years creates a lot of habits and muscle memory. I’ve got you beat, 08. Switch over to another sim for even a year, jump back into iracing and bingo
@ yeah I’ve done acc and lemons ultimate, and yes iracing definitely have things to improve on but the things like special events really make it fun imo
@@randomcallsign huh? How do you use the sim? Why would I care about a loading screen? I usually wait until 1-2 minutes after my session starts, then load in, look at the drivers participating, takes a minute, then I jump into quali. What exactly is the issue? Are you in a rush?
I’m heavily invested in iRacing . But I can’t look past it limitations now and I’m not interested in oval/dirt so it’s on hold for me until they make some bigger strides forward to catch up on the actual driving experience . I know they will do that, and when they do, I’ll go back to it for a while. But the tyre model/FFB and graphics are way behind the competition now, it’s just a dull, joyless diving experience. And I don’t want to put a load of time in practicing as a result. So I’m having a blast on LFM playing ams2, and dipping into LMU, and when raceroom gets on LFM I’ll play that too.
@@HatSonaMiku_KEKW how dare them build a loyal customer base that defends their product. What company would want that? Obviously it means the sim is really trash with blind followers. LoL
It's not perfect in a sense that it has no faults, it is perfect in a sense that it is exactly what the simracer that uses iRacing wants. No sim can and will ever be perfect, that's impossible.
@@KS-iy5xrya, what’s up with all the fanboys. Is it because if people tell you the tire sucks, netcode is horrible, tires turn to butter after you push the limited yaw, Feb is 😑. Is it because of ego, a reflection on the person, so they defend. Instead of just enjoying the iracing?
Iracing is Counter Strike of online sim racing. They have been around forever and were one of the first games not just sim racing games but games in the world that offered online matchmaking. This system just killed all the competition which was very little at the time and they have just improved on the service and polished it over 15 year span. People put so much emphasis on "realism" and "physics" but as you said that will not win people over. Overall game or product needs to bring something completely new and exciting to the table to dethrone iracing which probably will not happen for a while.
IRacing is a SaaS. Sim as a Service. And the competition service they offer, even with LFM and other live services, is just better. The price system is ridiculous and completely unjustified. And they have enough population that you can get decent competition, decent races at all levels. I argue that the competition provided, makes you a better driver. So you see yourself improving. Because you don't get left in the dust by an alien from the get go. You actually race. As for your question, me. I pay for Tidal fornthe conveniece of walkjng around town listening through my phone but their player is trash and when I am at home I have my flac files my schiit stack and my Audeze LCD 2s. That is what I listen to daily.
It'll sadden a lot of fanboys that what makes iRacing superior to others isn't that it's a better sim, but that it's a better game. Which is an opinion I share, it's definitely easier to find a match in iRacing in spite of all the issues I have with it personally.
glad to see you got likes, each time I point this out I get eaten alive lol iracing is literally just a good game with good matchmaking and proper punishments
I got into iRacing to improve my track day driving. Looked at like that, if 3,000 laps in iRacing help me get more out of trackdays then it’s cheap at the price. The first time I went back on track in real life I could immediately feel the benefit. Even if it’s not 100% accurate, let’s face it, no SIM can possibly replicate the g forces etc but they do at least teach track layouts, lines, braking techniques etc
“It doesn’t feel as good as any other sim” i would say it’s the biggest stretch honestly. Some people might not like the feeling that’s totally subjective and you’re entitled to your opinion. But one thing is consistently noticeable across sims like ACC AMS2 and LMU and that’s plainly over slippy surfaces to enhance car rotation which doesn’t happen on iRacing given it’s heavy reliance on braking, how i described it might be wrong but you can notice the less sharp feeling of other sims. The only exception is in my opinion AC, sharp great tires unlimited features thanks to CM. iRacing has it’s flaws, tyre model, on and past the limit drivability, graphics for someone and others for sure… But what this all revolves around in the end remains that convenience wins despite quality
It's the same as esports games with server browsers vs esports games with competitive matchmaking and a competitive series you can qualify for. Big difference in just that aspect in terms of the player draw.
I don't think it's the service that sets it apart but the organization. I'm not an iRacer, but it provides more than a service. Other games also provide a service, but they don't provide the level of organization. To enter the world of iRacing you have options but you've got to have a plan, just like real life. It provides an arena, and it provides a score, with results and consequences from your performance. That level of organization, and the simplicity that comes with it, is why it's successful. Beating an AI is not the same as beating another person. The paywall and the associated penalties for being an ass provides some level of protection of your own investment of time and money. And despite its cost, it's a lot cheaper than racing in real equipment.
As a Rookie in iRacing, I see the advantage of what iRacing has to offer. It is a service as you described. For a lot of Sim Racers, it is obvious that Sim Racers are willing to pay for an organized Sim event, within reason of course. Sim is all about emersion. Just as some Sim Players pay for Steering wheels that cost thousands just to be emerged into the game.
I held off Iracing because of the cost but once i gave it a go there was no looking back. All sims have issues with physics and Iracing is no exception. I agree with your point that the service that Iracing provides is what sets it apart.
I agree. I don't think other titles can compete with the type of service and experience you can get on iRacing. Despite some of them being better in the simulation department, iRacing still has the most active player base.
Raceroom has the most potential. They just need their own John Henry. Thats why iracing is as successful as they are, unlmtd funding, and a great subscription service.
As a Hawaii veteran (iykyk). Iracing was and is an answer to my racing dreams. The matchmaking the driving model.... drivers like to cry...we will cry again. IRacing can be improved, but I dont see anything even close. I appreciate your take, thanks for the video and the work it takes to put it up.
1. iRacing’s technical upgrade path takes into account the portion of its user base who are still sim racing on crappy PCs. It is only in the most recent update that it took away support for Windows versions prior to Win10. Only a few years ago it was still supporting Windows XP! In all seriousness the developer didn’t want to alienate or cut off a large number of people who had been on the service for years and moved very carefully in adding new capabilities to the sim. The sim looks like it can run on a potato computer because that’s a deliberate choice. 2. The oval community is massive, and there are ZERO worthy competitors to iRacing in this space. Recent NASCAR games from a large publisher infamously lived a very short life, and believe me I’ve dabbled in some community mods for Assetto Corsa and I can tell you they do not hold up at all against the quality of the oval experience on iRacing. I understand that rFactor 2 has some very good oval content but it is thin on the ground and participation would be non-existent. AMS2 probably has the best oval experience outside iRacing but again it’s limited to a handful of tracks and cars. I don’t have the numbers to back up the following claim, but the size and depth of the paid subscribers in the oval community could probably support iRacing’s business on its own. 3. Real life race car drivers in their thousands use iRacing on a regular basis. I’ve personally raced against (or more accurately driven slowly on the same track at the same time as) drivers from F1, IndyCar, NASCAR, Supercars, DTM, WEC, MotoGP, and many others who I didn’t notice or didn’t know of at the time. Having a scrap of a chance to end up in an IMSA race with Max Verstappen causes more people to sign up for a race just to be able to say that they were on track with him, or even beat him somehow. No other sim has that drawcard. 4. This video doesn’t touch on the incredibly solid e-sports platform that iRacing is. There is a huge foundation for sim racers to try and make their way up to one of the many Pro series that are available if they are talented enough. The biggest sim racing e-sports prize is the eNASCAR iRacing Coca-Cola series, which awards the champion every year a $50,000 prize in a final event that’s held live at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. And similar to point 3 above, mortals like myself can race with these people and have a great time doing so, even if we have no chance of beating them. 5. To make a final point, aside from console games like Gran Turismo, iRacing is the most user friendly sim I’ve ever interacted with. The menus may be ancient but they are clear and easy to navigate. Setting up everything from peripherals to screen setup is a breeze. I wish other sims made it as simple to calculate FOV based on screen size, shape and distance. And believe it or not, I like the fact that the FFB options are basically nonexistent compared to other sims and you don’t need to spend an hour trying to fine-tune a feel that you like. It keeps things focussed and relevant.
Well for me, iracing does the driving part really good and i like the graphics. Dont forget rf2 where almost drifting was quickest way to drive or ams2 floaty feeling. They all has something. I have all these most popular sims, but i just like the feeling of iracing the best.
I also subscribed lmu, I like their championship system better. The races are held on set days and times and once you sign up for the championship you choose the car and you can't change it more. You do the whole season competing with the same people more or less. And this is much more realistic.
Just because you pay for a subscription it doesn't mean that iracing is not a sim. That's like paying for SKY TV and then saying that they are not TV Channels, That's nonsense. Every racing sim has issues even if people don't want to acknowledge it. Iracing is surviving because of it's ranking system. It doesn't do anything else better. I can get a 15-20 year-old sim to look, sound & play better than iracing.
Also most induystral sims if not made from the ground up are so much more exxpenisve then iracing every will! Not to mention the total amount you can put into iRacing is actually very little compared to the vasy majority of games and Sim on steam... Not to mention the biggest mobile games which dwarf evwen rffortnight in anayuel revune... So yeah if cost meant sim itwas then sims were the insanely expensive onmes vven comercal inide sims due to the nature of their game engines and sim data and the time it takes to polish them... So to the vast nmajoity of people even now when the sim market has massively cooled thanks to modern gme design methiods... Most people think more expsnive sim are factually better from cost alone... Like this aruement is still very common among the DCS community and when was the last time anyone say Ace combat was a better sim then DCS?
with their pricing for content - they should steward the offical races. having your rating destroyed by raging trolls screaming is trash for the amount you have to pay.
@@blackrahk2037 Kinda, the first hurdle to overcome in acc is the setup, the default setups are trash and if you don't know/want to setup a car, you're just leaving performance on the table, the second hurdle is the "counter strike" effect, the game has been out for so long and there's only one "map" per track to master, so everyone already knows "all the angles". So when you join a race right now, 90% of the grid is generally 4 seconds faster than you, whereas in iracing, like @Terrtail said, you'll be matched with people that are closer to you in skill
the setups are generally half a second off my HYMO ones. In Fanatec GT3 or IMSA, i can also have the grid filled with aliens and im so much time off. you are probably more used to iracing than ACC, hence the delta will be higher. like any sim, you have to spend time to get faster, doesnt matter if its iracing, acc, ac, lmu or whatever.
Started sim racing 3 years ago. Went from a desk setup. To a full sim rig in that time. I've been to busy with the likes of AC ACC R3E RF2 LMU to even have time for iRacing but you may have just twisted arm
honestly, I think the loyal playerbase doesn't make iRacing ie. keep the tyre system just "because they can", but because they can plan far ahead. they will still have that playerbase in 2026. I remember talking about the weather in 2013, but that only came out this year. same for track updates: how long before ie. Silverstone got it's 2011 update? it took years to arrive. same for the tyre update, it's coming, but they don't need to rush it. other sims see their player numbers go down with issues like this, so there's an urgency to fix them. and sometimes you see patches fixing one problem but bringing several others. so yeah, iRacing is in a luxury position, but it's not because they're lazy, or feel like "they can leave it". and on the graphics: iRacing is 5 years older than AC, but if you don't count third party addons, the graphics look much more up to date than vanilla AC.
You nailed it. If all of the sims were the same cost, iRacing still wins because it’s a service that’s consistent, reliable and convenient. I’m hopeful there’s competition at some point to push things forward, but it’s going to take much bigger companies and a dedication to multi-player ecosystem first. Everything else second.
The biggest money throwaway is buying other sims trying to avoid Iracing. Once you eventually join you realize why it costs what it does, and then you ignore everything else, because it is not nearly as good.
I'll stick with the convenience of iRacing. Years ago I bought the new Electric race cars in RF2 for $50.- and drove them twice. AC is a nightmare with all those extras and weather and millions of mods, everything special. FFS I just want to drive! AMS2 is NOT cheap with the DLC's. etc.
dude why you think people only play simracing to compete? some just want to cruise for fun thats why people play ac. Ok i get it that for competitive racing nobody beat iracing but people just dont only race competitively. This is why many iracing elitist thinks we just want to race competiitively forever.
@@macubasu le mans ultimate gives for 30 bucks an experience no other sim gave, i find myself better in there than iracing. drivers are bad in low rank lobbies alright, but you get the best sim under it. iracing is so far from reality with its driving model cars lose the reason why they're fun. hypercars are fun cause they have very low grip but a lot of power. iracing made them into perfect LMP1s. you're not getting the fun of the cars youre driving all for an insane price. its unacceptable.
@@kotarojujo2737 Sounds like you haven't tried iracing. You are like how I was before I got on iracing. I played many other sims, but have abandoned literally all of them since iracing. Don't knock it till you try it.
@benson_weaver see? thats elitism behaviour. NOT EVERYONE THAT PLAY SIMS WANTS TO COMPETE. SIMPLY SOME JUST WANT TO CRUISE AND CHILL WITH STREET CARS AND FREEROAM WITH RELATIVELY REALISTIC PHYSICS. so you basically just like discredit everybody that only drive car irl too and they should drive racecar on track everyday. thats doesnt make sense.
It's interesting when folks discuss iRacing having outdated graphics, when it's the only one that seems to actually be able to put the car and tire on a racing surface.. We often then see AC, ACC, rFactor, et. al. gameplay where the cars are floating atop it.
This is a good take for people new to the sim world. For those who league raced NR2003 and moved into iRacing, the matchmaking and lobby racing system means nothing to most of us. The additions and expansion of different racing genres within the service are nice additions, but have only hurt the development of iRacings original and main focus that they have a monopoly on...and that is oval racing. As someone who has been Sim-ing for 30+ years, iRacing only does one thing well compared to the other sims, and it's not where the rubber meets the road.
Call of duty player nba 2k player spend way more money than us they buy the same game every years plus season passes skins is time to stop crying about this subject
I think "good enough physics to be a sim" hit the nail on the head. iRacing does matchmaking the best and the rest it does at a good enough level. Also, for the most part, there is a lot of good development. Sure, there are sometimes flops, like GTP. But there is no reason to think that 2-3 years dow nthe line iRacing will not be even better. I think the subscription model is essential to allowing continuous development.
If iRacing made it so you could race offline in practice mode without an active paid subscription then they would 100% beat almost ever other sim racing title
Funny how everybody is quick to join the social media pants shitters when iRacing gets a car wrong, but there's crickets when they get it just right. Bottom line, iRacing is successful because they were first in and best dressed in the realm of multiplayer sim racing. They didn't have any real competition until recently and most of the people who criticize the game are doing so for clickbait.
This: 'Low resistance, integrated, simple solutions will always win'. I think iRacing could be described as elegant. That's why it's so attractive. AC Evo with seamless integrated multiplayer might be a challenger, but we'll see.
We need a competitor to iRacing like Valorant was to Counter Strike. Do the same online focused business model as iRacing to give iRacing competition and force them to raise their standards. If the profitability of iRacing is to be believed, it should be totally worth it for someone to do this just as Valorant has been entering the market to directly compete with Counter Strike with the same business model.
The convenience factor is huge for me, it’s like Steam but for car experiences. Yeah, I leave iRacing for experiences I can’t find there, like drifting in AC or rally in RBR, but even messing with Le Mans Ultimate lately, and really enjoying a lot of aspects, a part of me is definitely caught on the fact that I can already do it in iRacing, and whether the nuance of the physics or fidelity of the graphics matters to at all past the novelty of it. And that experience is double when I go to AM2, RR and others, and even keeps me from having a reason to give a crap about Rennsport. Again, what is it offering that I’m not getting in Iracing already. Which, no shade to devs but, Iracing just kinda has a whole segment on lock, and it’s not gonna move easily.
You also have a race every hour or every half and hour. Where in lowfuelmotorsport you have to wait two hours. Also has a better progression system if you start in rookies imo
5:27 I have a playlist on youtube What I also do. Is just download the song off of youTube or record the song via obs then convert it to mp3, rename the mp3 to the song name and listen to it.
I’ve been switching back and forth from ACC to iRacing, but may switch to iRacing full time. Not because I like iRacing more, but because i live in the US. My UK buddies are 6 hours ahead of me, and other than weekends I don’t get a chance to race with them very often.
It's esentially WOW. I would say Star Citizen but it hasn't been in Alpha forever. I use Prime for my music and haven't purchased music since I stopped DJ'ing in 2016. RFactor Pro is the top, but is not available for consumer use. They have the keys like NVIDIA has the keys to the GPU space. They charging 2K for a 5090 because they found out they could during covid.
As a rally and drift fan, I'm still looking for the perfect track sim to mess around. I can't play whenever I want so iRacing is really convenient for daily races but the feeling of driving on eggshells is really really annoying. Now I'm waiting for AC EVO and LMU...
I'm really liking LMU multiplayer ranking system (simple and inplemented in-game) though its limited in car choice. For gt3 lovers, LMU and ACC LFM are very good alternatives.
Really nice take on it great video to be fair... Iracing and World of warcraft have the same principle. Subscription base always beat buy to play.... ALWAYS we can have a 10 hour talk as to how this beats it at any time.. i am playing wow since 2008. and i play iracing for 3 years now. (well since i was playing wow i didn't have time for something else lol) Anw.. to have so many servers running on parallel at the same time of all those categories of racing it IS NOT CHEAP at ALL and WONT happen on any other game ever (official servers ofc community servers don't count). Now the second part is that, lets say i bought AMS2 3 years ago and no one was playing it and i waste 100euros on it. After 1-2 weeks i was like i should have invest these money in Iracing due to the fact that i would have that content to play with someone else... It is the same with RF2 i bought the DLC and no one play it almost... but if i bought content in iracing it will be there.... i will still racing in it with other players even if 10 years have passed i have content that i still race in like lets say SPA or Monza etc etc that i still drive even if i bought them 3 years ago and i am sure will drive them in 2028 or whatever.... The value of that 15euros is way more in Iracing. They constantly improve the game. the QUALITY if the items you buy is TOP. i bought a lot of DLCs on other racing games that i didn't even play them enough in the end so the 30-40euros i WASTED on those games i WISH i gave them to Iracing..... You feel more invested you feel that your time practicing in iracing is worth it that you learn it cos it will be there for many years to race and use that time you invested in it.... And don't get me started that we don't have good enough PCs to run max simulation even if they gave it to us..... the Head Dev of RF2 said it once in a podcast... so i guess all the sims luck realism due to the tech that we do not have in our pcs YET i guess one day we might be able to have max simulation on our home pc... This is my opinion after my years of exp in Sub based games. They get patched all the time get better and better. on a pace no other Buy to play game/sim due to the fact that they have constant stream of money fueling the dev of the game/sim
As of Jan 28th, my brief 1 year stint with iRacing will be over and I will be uninstalling it. You're right about the service, but the "sim" by itself, is hot garbage to me. I'll stick to ACC, AMS2, LMU and RaceRoom. 🙂
One of the things that irritates me is almost *every* *new* *sim* is about road racing. Oval racing, both asphalt and dirt, is singlehandedly done by iRacing only, and that's a huge market. You may think it's the US only (which is pretty huge anyway) but there's a huge appeal of it in many international/non-US countries too. Australia has numerous dirt oval racing series like the US, with midgets, stocks, late models, etc., plus many Europeans like oval racing too. Why no one tries to do something other than the same old road racing GT3 route, I don't know. The last one to try was a game from 2008 called ARCA Sim Racing, built on rFactor code.
What you beat around the bush by calling "convenience, "process" or "solutions" has its name - it's called GAMEPLAY DESIGN. IRacing is first and foremost a well-designed, functional competitive online video game with huge playerbase. And yes, to compete with iRacing other devs need to deliver something more than a simulation. They need to deliver gameplay that will captivate people. The reason Assetto Corsa is popular is because it delivers unlimited sandbox-style gameplay possibilities. The reason F1 games are popular (aside from the license) is because they provide unparalleled career mode experience, that several content creators have built their entire channels around. The reason ACC is popular is thanks to LFM, which provided the same competitive gameplay framework around it that iRacing has inherently. That's not a new observation, it's just that simracing community is completely blind to the role and importance of gameplay in their obsession around physics and realism, and sometimes even disrespectfully dismissive of it, as if games are beneath them. Every sport is a game, and racing is a sport. The sooner simracers realize that and how gameplay design would improve their experience, the better for the state of simracing genre. Simracing titles need to be sports games, not just tech demos. IRacing understood that and that's why it's the most popular title.
I feel like you could also see it like fifa: Ea brings out new game every year for at least 70 euro or something like that. The amount of people buying fifa over and over again is just insane. And for the service amount of updates fixes… I think is worth 10 bucks a month I mean just think about streaming services.
ONLY REASON I am on Iracing is I live in the states, on the west coast and have kids. 8pm or later during the week is my only opportunity to race and Iracing is the ONLY sim with full lobbies. If that changes I will move away from Iracing
I’m in Calif, there’s no full lobbies at 8:00pst. Maybe 5:00-6:00 pst. Now maybe the Miata or rookie classes. West coast racing has always been this way in iracing or sim racing as a whole
You are absolutely right. Unfortunately iRacing doesn't have real competition. Also, iracing in my view, is by far the most challenging sim to be fast in, wich is great from a competitive perspective
Similar to Iracing I think even older games like FM2-4 it makes sense why they did well because the features carried the games more than the physics/graphics and still required xbl to race online...etc. Now its a graveyard on newer forza titles and rightfully so because devs didnt cater to what players wanted feature wise. I still think iracing needs to adopt some form of free to play racing still. Even if it's simple hotlap leaderboards or ability to test out every car.
2 year membership with the discount is $100 =$50/year which is what other games typically cost to purchase. Add on top each year the updates are included and most people don’t have to buy new cars tracks all the time. I switched from ACC to iracing about a month ago and agree that it’s much easier to get into a race and much more addicting. Sure other games you can have forever without needing to repurchase or subscribe, but the amount of content on iracing can’t be beat both in terms of racing types and amounts of races/practices 24/7.
Honestly I had so much hope for other games to rise and make iRacing worry but it almost seems like they don't want to compete with iRacing in that aspect. They make great sims that people eventually move on from and get back to iRacing. iRacing is like a gaming console you just turn it on and play whenever you want (for the most part) simple, affective and gets you what you wanted. Is it perfect? not at all but it does everything you want it to with a passing grade. It's sad that no one else wants to challenge that.
I've been on iRacing since it went public and have not looked back since. I've got AC, ACC, AMS1 and 2, RF2. I'm almost 100% on iRacing, and dabble here and then on AMS2 at this point. While true that I have spent a lot of money into iRacing, the racing itself feels better, the reliability, like you said, makes it that at almost anytime I want to hop in, I can find either an official race, or hosted race that I can enjoy and more often then not, have hard, clean races compared to my experience in other sims, makes it worth it to me. Are all the cars 100% pure to real life in feel and driving? No, and neither are any other 80$ sim. AMS is alright to me, but finding a server is a pain, some cars handle like crap, some are great. Netcode to me is even more questionnable then iRacing. But as a whole, iRacing is just more complet, enjoyable and worth my money.
You can’t compare that 💩 ams2, worse online. May be slightly better with LFM but the madness engine sucks. The plug n play and convince is IRacing’s charm. You put the time in rf2 and LMU and the “simulation” is better. I’m not talking jump back in and out 10 laps in after you’ve been iracing for 10 years
For me, its the simplicity of navigating the waters. I understand its concept easily and it doesnt challenge to jump in, only challenges me to drive. However, the lack of japanese GT cars definitely makes me sad. I also dont enjoy paying $12 per car, and paying for the circuit separately. Yes they offer discounts the more shit you buy, but i would still like more free content since youre already being actively charged for the game itself.
Iracing, ac, acc, race room, rfactor 2 , le mans ultimate and ams 2. There is one sim that I don't play anymore and that's Iracing. Even when they delete the subscribtion and offer all the tracks and cars for free. I think this says enough.
I feel IRacing is nothing more than a carry over from when Papyrus and Sierra companies had a game called Nascar 2003 and the online servers were free to race online for several years. Nascar 2003 was allot of fun back then and I was on a couple private leagues. When they pulled the plug on the free Sierra servers, that is when IRacing kicked off their online racing game. But everyone had to pay subscription prices and has been that way ever since. People still do Nascar 2003 but have their own servers now and race leagues. I went a different direction and bought only (one time buys) of many Racing games from STEAM and never did IRacing. If you do allot of weekly online Racing, then IRacing maybe for you and you will get your moneys worth. I just don't have the dedicated time anymore. Thanks for your video.
I dont personally agree with what you say about iRacing, to me and for me its the best option as it covers all the things i want and need in a sim. They are continually investing, improving and updating. You can't make anything in this day and age that will make everyone happy in every situation. But the direction, investment and implementation of iRacing business model i can honestly say happily, Take my money! initial cost can be hi in comparison, but once you race what you love i think the ongoing costs are not that bad. If you have an issue i find forums and help desk are great and community involved. This is why iRacing is so good, i dont understand why people hate on any one sim, Just dont play it and be happy. Every sim has pros and cons! for me iRacing has more Pros than Cons and contimues to push the boundries for future development!
I think this is my hottest take. Sub for more
You're a brave man 😉😁
I spent a bit of time in Rfactor 2 because it was meant to be good online but I never found many online races with enough people to make it interesting, that and the seemingly obtuse and clunky interface meant that after tinkering for a few weeks I eventually gave up. Good thing I got it on a steam sale.
@@DavyJonesSimRacing I didn't see any controversial opinion in the video tbh.
Do you think AC Evo will rival Iracing with ranked racing?
This isn't a particularly hot take, it's a fairly reasonable explanation. If any other game did what iRacing does for my particular tastes I might consider switching. I think a big part of your take is there's only one iRacing and they update it all the time. They're even working on a modern graphics engine. Any other game I buy will eventually stop receiving updates, and additional content for that game might not be usable in the next version. As my tastes are rather niche I need some assurance that what I drive will always be available in the next version.
until someone else makes a matchmaking system as streamlined as theirs with simplicity, iracing will always stay on top. It also provides an extremely broad range of vehicles that other games cant even afford of doing. also, people complain about the subscription but its literally the greatest wall against griefers. nobodys paying 200 dollars to grief 3 races and get banned. also the competition is incredible. when you get in high SR lobbies, the experience is wonderful.
I’d even say high IR drivers are more safe than high SR 😊
I think you may have just won the “most myths in a comment” contest
Nailed it brother, absolutely nailed it.
iRacing is a joke.
Graphics from 1996.!
@@matthiasgrunwald895 Yes because graphics is all we look for in a racing simulator.... maybe you confuse simulator for a video game.
The problem with your Spotify analogy is that I don't pay for individual songs on top of the subscription.
@@EnvyCT9A that is why they make other sims and video games.
@KS-iy5xr are you dense? The analogy doesn't work here. Nothing more, nothing less.
The difference being that Spotify is essentially a distributor. The revenue from monthly subscriptions alone would not even cover the costs of R&D and license fees.
@@syko846 yes I am dense. Too dense to understand why people feel they should be able to determine something as complex as pricing structure for a business just based on what they want to pay. You not-so-dense consumers want to run them out of business by all the cars and tracks being free or only paying $25 for a perpetual license with unlimited updates.
Let me try to make this so someone as dense as me gets it. If you like what a company offers then pay for it. If you don’t like it or receive enough value to justify what they want to be paid, then don’t pay. Guess what the business will decide based on how you vote with your money what pricing they need to charge or what services they can provide.
@@KS-iy5xr that's very free market of you
“There’s no iRacing 2” hit the nail on the head. It’s a service, which has a negative connotation these days, but it’s a service that has remained consistently cared for. Knowing it isn’t going to get abandoned for the next number is a big reason I stick around. Asobo needs to be careful, one more new flight sim and they’re going to lose their user base.
Services are meant to better. League of Legends being the best example IMO. There were no sequels or DLC splitting up the users. The F1 games would be far better if they just updated 1 version.
I stayed away for so long from iracing. Thinking to myself man it can't be worth to pay a subscription. After a 3 month trial I got hooked. Nobody does the service to race better than they do. Now I regret not starting the service sooner.
Me too. I left every other sim
i was in this same boat i saw it go on same on steam for $25 for a year and was like welp i guess ill try it and see how it goes. im only a week or so in and i dont see myself dropping it any time soon.
I hate the pricing model, but I love that I can just jump in to a series at any time and be on the grid within 30 minutes max. I tried LFM but it turned into something I needed to plan my day around a race that’s coming in 1-3 hours.
Odd, never had that problem with LFM. In Assetto they had a Ferrari Challenge race going off every hour, and an IMSA GTP multi-class race every 2 hours which was identical to iR.
I have always had races populated races in ACC LFM
@@randomcallsign they're populated for sure, but perhaps im too low in rookies to have a plethora of options. in iracing I can do quick 10 minute races if im pressed for time
Yeah that makes sense
@@randomcallsign Adding to Robstunner main point. iRacing has fairly well populated grids EVERY hour of the day, not only during peak EU times like LFM. I've also tried LFM, but I it's almost dead outside of EU times.
Title alone is going to ruffle some feathers. *grabs popcorn*
Ofocrse it's rage bate meant to drive enagemnt like that because it's just a lie that people muyuist correct... This type of news is called tabloid and this was one of the worse examples of that... Like people would have found it hallarus if it wasn't framed as a joke and pardoy of tabloaids and what to avoid in news... But no it's so much worse then the most hated tabloaids of the past few years... Like this is easlsy worde then kotaku and katoku died because it was a laughing stock of talboids... Tghjs is just terrible and unexcusble form this channel as they know better...
4 months ago, I started my sim racing journey with AC after watching NoHesi server. But now I'm a fulltime iRacer. AC, ACC, F1... stay untouch in my library. Everyday, after finishing my work and my kid goes to bed, I race 1 hour nonstop. Sometimes race, sometimes practice. I also skip all the other games for enjoy iRacing.
iRacing is the World of Warcraft of simracing.
well said
or the apple
@@Accelr8r as someone who never played wow. Can you explain that game to me? Always been curious.
Or World of tank :)
Fuck I was going to say the same exact thing.
For someone who doesn't know anything, really good video, no one forced me to drive iracing, it's not great but it's the best, and the lobbies are always full of drivers, racing is always available, I get about 40 dollars a year that I can spend on new tracks or cars, database about driving is in one place, and everything is available, I'm afraid that some have started to mix grand turismo as simcade and simulator, this is an expensive hobby and unfortunately not everyone can buy all that expensive equipment, it's always been like that, let the children play games on logitech equipment, I notice that there are people on iracing for whom money is not a problem, people who have businesses and careers, one more thing, I bought all the content on ACC and what they released and what I have now on at the end of that, when everyone switches to AC, nothing, your money went to waste, while he plays f1 codemasters every year, he spends about 50 euros and what do we do, nothing, let's move on. we can list endless examples. again, it works better for me on iracing, I buy one track and it's mine and when they do a rescan I have it for nothing, sorry it's a bit long message but I'm of the same opinion.
As someone else pointed out, as much as we don't like the pricing model of iRacing, it is a good way of keeping griefters away. Because almost nobody will be willing to pay a subscription just to go and crash into people intentionally, also the report system works really well, so nobody will be doing that for long before getting banned.
That's because the system is a joke and very few complain...and they know it.
And the children don't care, it's mommies money anyway
I see much more video iracing dirty drivers complains on facebook than any other game.
@@dante316a it couldn’t be because it is the most popular online racing sim. It has to be because it happens the highest percentage of time.
While I agree with the sentiment of your comment, it still doesn't justify extorting customers for individual virtual cars and tracks on top of the subscription, simply because they can.
@@divinasi0n It is the same with DCS world. Consumers are really the problem. That is why shit is as fucked as it is everywyhere.
This is a pretty negative outlook on iRacing. I've been sim racing for 20+ years and I have and still do host weekly cup races on several platforms. I will say, I finally started hosting one of my series on iRacing and it's way better to use for fair and glitch-free competition. We were using AMS2 for this series for 20 weeks and now 3 weeks after iRacing the drivers are much happier and I don't run into the same glitches and failures that I did in AMS2. Further, the BOP in something like GT3 is way better in iRacing. All of this isn't even talking about how iRacing brings a more mature and committed audience to public races.
Ams2 madness engine is horrible, bugs galore
unless there are sims that do oval racing other than iracing, i'm not sure i will have to leave it, raceroom tried but has no intentions to make it to be a thing, since it's an european studio
Facts, and same
I mean raceroom has the problem of having even worse graphics then iRacing and in my opinion the physics also don't feel that great.
1-year long iRacer here. There were a few moments where I've been on the fence about the amount of time and money I've spent in it. But as I think back, iRacing introduced me to so many aspects of lower and upper-level racing that I never knew about. It really showed me just how in-depth racing is and how underrated the lower-level aspects are. In addition, the devs are some of the most dedicated I've seen nowadays and are constantly working to fix the issues that are brought up.
I have no intention of canceling my subscription soon.
zzzzz most dedicated 20M a year team that hasn't upgraded the 2008 engine and has the worst FFB and tire models still to this day. Dedicated devs my ass, it's using a UI out of 2008 still lol. It uses a F2P monetization system while having a monthly subscription. AC/ACC does it for free and better lol.
@Squad44ICOhappened They're fixing the engine and the UI. It's something they've been working on for a decent amount of time now.
I will admit that the tire models do need work and that it is pricy, but I still find that I'm thoroughly enjoying my time on it.
Also, where'd you get 20M a year? Not trying to argue that, I'm genuinely curious.
I just started using Iracing despite it not being perfect and i won’t go back any time soon. Other than the ease of use and the variety, it was the first time where i hopped on a rookie race and didn’t get absolutely annihilated at the first turn. The licensing system and irating works good enough for everybody to try fair racing at their best ability
I race iracing and lfm, it is the same. Iracing is no better.
I feel like people don’t give iracing enough credit for putting work into the game. It has lots of issues absolutely, but they are improving the sim every chance they get in meaningful ways
iRacing to me was 100% worth all the money I’ve ever spent on it, the fun I have and the racing is amazing learning racecraft and advancing my irl racecraft, I don’t really I understand all the hate, almost everything you did in this video does have reasons behind it. It’s also just the fact that people trust iracing, they are an extremely open company, and they are extremely see through with what they are doing behind the scenes. Like the GTP issue was almost immediately acknowledged and being worked on. TLDR I like iracing but you can have your own opinion on it
Facts
I have subscribed since 12/13/2014, bought over 70 cars and 60 tracks. I don't miss the money at all. Happy to have spent it with a company like iRacing. As a simulator, iRacing is not just like racing a real car but the laser scanned tracks make it the best simulator to prepare for an actual race at a specific track.
For people with economy based on dollar or euro, it's easy to stay with iRacing and buy basically everything the sim offers, but that's not the situation of the biggest part of the world, for them, iRacing is a big waste of money if you are not really focused on being professional.
Simulators like AMS2, ACC and LMU are the best option for the rest
How long have you been with iracing?
@@KS-iy5xrwhat other sims have you raced
iRacing is like being in a loyal marriage, you'll tough it out no matter how tempting others can be. It'll take a massive screwup on iRacing's part to drive people away instead of another sim doing everything right/better.
Have a week of racing rf2 and have bugs mess your race up. It’s usually because if you don’t have experience setting up rf2 you’ll have problems. If you’re lucky and have a good league there’s no comparison, same with LMU. The problem with rf2c todays world people don’t have much time so, they do the plug n play iracing even though it’s like crap driving. Don’t get close to anyone, netcode will kill ya or send ya too the moon
@@RacingWithChuck27 And that's what this video is about, people love the iRacing service no matter if the underlying physics/sim isn't as true to life as what other sims attempt to do. There's more to a top-tier sim than the physics.
or sunk cost fallacy...
And paying as much as one does for the content sounds like divorce!
You've absolutely nailed it my man.
I used to only run ACC, mock people paying so much for iRacing.
Umtil I tried it (via an FIA/UKM promotion) and since then I've been hooked.
It's far from perfect & the pricing model does jar but that income stream makes it head & shoulders above the rest for robust, competitive online multiplayer.
And in the coming months major changes are planned for the UI, graphics and tyre model which will significantly improve it in areas where it's sub-par.
Agreed. I think it was Dj yeejay that mentioned that they weren’t profitable until 2020, and it makes sense when you realize the ramp up in the amount of updates they’ve been working since then. The criticism is valid but only for so long. (Except for pricing, thats staying up there)
They’ve been preaching that since 08 (I’ve been there) but maybe just maybe the new gaming engine will be the winner. Dave’s tire is what has sucked
The racing on iRacing can be sloppy, but the paywall does make their sloppy racing better than what's available in other sims.
Being hard core iRacer from 2011 and driving many different sims the last few years i still feel happier with iRacing driving experience the most and i often say to people to not trust my opinion for the reasons you expressed 😁
13 years creates a lot of habits and muscle memory. I’ve got you beat, 08. Switch over to another sim for even a year, jump back into iracing and bingo
in my opinion iRacing has been worth every dollar I’ve put into it
the graphics I can live with. have you ever tried to time a loading screen?
Have you tried team endurance racing on other sims?
@ yeah I’ve done acc and lemons ultimate, and yes iracing definitely have things to improve on but the things like special events really make it fun imo
@@randomcallsign You didn't address that they are building a new graphics engine that is planned for release next year though...
@@randomcallsign huh? How do you use the sim? Why would I care about a loading screen? I usually wait until 1-2 minutes after my session starts, then load in, look at the drivers participating, takes a minute, then I jump into quali. What exactly is the issue? Are you in a rush?
I’m heavily invested in iRacing . But I can’t look past it limitations now and I’m not interested in oval/dirt so it’s on hold for me until they make some bigger strides forward to catch up on the actual driving experience . I know they will do that, and when they do, I’ll go back to it for a while. But the tyre model/FFB and graphics are way behind the competition now, it’s just a dull, joyless diving experience. And I don’t want to put a load of time in practicing as a result. So I’m having a blast on LFM playing ams2, and dipping into LMU, and when raceroom gets on LFM I’ll play that too.
You tackle the discussion perfectly, basically it works. My only gripe with it is the amount of people that act like its perfect when its not.
More people act like there's a large portion of people acting likes it's perfect than their are people who think it's perfect
@@HatSonaMiku_KEKW how dare them build a loyal customer base that defends their product. What company would want that? Obviously it means the sim is really trash with blind followers. LoL
It's not perfect in a sense that it has no faults, it is perfect in a sense that it is exactly what the simracer that uses iRacing wants. No sim can and will ever be perfect, that's impossible.
@@KS-iy5xrya, what’s up with all the fanboys. Is it because if people tell you the tire sucks, netcode is horrible, tires turn to butter after you push the limited yaw, Feb is 😑. Is it because of ego, a reflection on the person, so they defend. Instead of just enjoying the iracing?
@ agreed. I mean I have never raced a real car that is perfect either. LoL
Iracing is Counter Strike of online sim racing. They have been around forever and were one of the first games not just sim racing games but games in the world that offered online matchmaking. This system just killed all the competition which was very little at the time and they have just improved on the service and polished it over 15 year span. People put so much emphasis on "realism" and "physics" but as you said that will not win people over. Overall game or product needs to bring something completely new and exciting to the table to dethrone iracing which probably will not happen for a while.
Dont care if the physics are a little off, I will never afford to race a real car regularly, let alone a 499p.
IRacing is a SaaS. Sim as a Service. And the competition service they offer, even with LFM and other live services, is just better. The price system is ridiculous and completely unjustified. And they have enough population that you can get decent competition, decent races at all levels. I argue that the competition provided, makes you a better driver. So you see yourself improving. Because you don't get left in the dust by an alien from the get go. You actually race.
As for your question, me. I pay for Tidal fornthe conveniece of walkjng around town listening through my phone but their player is trash and when I am at home I have my flac files my schiit stack and my Audeze LCD 2s. That is what I listen to daily.
It'll sadden a lot of fanboys that what makes iRacing superior to others isn't that it's a better sim, but that it's a better game. Which is an opinion I share, it's definitely easier to find a match in iRacing in spite of all the issues I have with it personally.
The thing that holds iRacing above all other sims is the progression system, and the integration it has with FIA
glad to see you got likes, each time I point this out I get eaten alive lol
iracing is literally just a good game with good matchmaking and proper punishments
I got into iRacing to improve my track day driving.
Looked at like that, if 3,000 laps in iRacing help me get more out of trackdays then it’s cheap at the price.
The first time I went back on track in real life I could immediately feel the benefit. Even if it’s not 100% accurate, let’s face it, no SIM can possibly replicate the g forces etc but they do at least teach track layouts, lines, braking techniques etc
how is that exclusive to iracing?
“It doesn’t feel as good as any other sim” i would say it’s the biggest stretch honestly. Some people might not like the feeling that’s totally subjective and you’re entitled to your opinion. But one thing is consistently noticeable across sims like ACC AMS2 and LMU and that’s plainly over slippy surfaces to enhance car rotation which doesn’t happen on iRacing given it’s heavy reliance on braking, how i described it might be wrong but you can notice the less sharp feeling of other sims. The only exception is in my opinion AC, sharp great tires unlimited features thanks to CM. iRacing has it’s flaws, tyre model, on and past the limit drivability, graphics for someone and others for sure… But what this all revolves around in the end remains that convenience wins despite quality
You have to try the LMP2 tires. It's been the biggest step in tire physics in iRacing's history.
It's the same as esports games with server browsers vs esports games with competitive matchmaking and a competitive series you can qualify for.
Big difference in just that aspect in terms of the player draw.
I don't think it's the service that sets it apart but the organization. I'm not an iRacer, but it provides more than a service. Other games also provide a service, but they don't provide the level of organization. To enter the world of iRacing you have options but you've got to have a plan, just like real life. It provides an arena, and it provides a score, with results and consequences from your performance. That level of organization, and the simplicity that comes with it, is why it's successful. Beating an AI is not the same as beating another person. The paywall and the associated penalties for being an ass provides some level of protection of your own investment of time and money. And despite its cost, it's a lot cheaper than racing in real equipment.
As a Rookie in iRacing, I see the advantage of what iRacing has to offer. It is a service as you described. For a lot of Sim Racers, it is obvious that Sim Racers are willing to pay for an organized Sim event, within reason of course. Sim is all about emersion. Just as some Sim Players pay for Steering wheels that cost thousands just to be emerged into the game.
I held off Iracing because of the cost but once i gave it a go there was no looking back. All sims have issues with physics and Iracing is no exception. I agree with your point that the service that Iracing provides is what sets it apart.
I agree. I don't think other titles can compete with the type of service and experience you can get on iRacing. Despite some of them being better in the simulation department, iRacing still has the most active player base.
I just started iRacing 2 days ago, coming from ACC. I like it so far.
its literally just the matchmaking
Raceroom has the most potential. They just need their own John Henry. Thats why iracing is as successful as they are, unlmtd funding, and a great subscription service.
AC evo
@fqeagles21 oh, where's that available currently? 🤔
The thing that holds iRacing above all other sims is the progression system, and the integration it has with FIA
As a Hawaii veteran (iykyk). Iracing was and is an answer to my racing dreams. The matchmaking the driving model.... drivers like to cry...we will cry again. IRacing can be improved, but I dont see anything even close. I appreciate your take, thanks for the video and the work it takes to put it up.
1. iRacing’s technical upgrade path takes into account the portion of its user base who are still sim racing on crappy PCs. It is only in the most recent update that it took away support for Windows versions prior to Win10. Only a few years ago it was still supporting Windows XP! In all seriousness the developer didn’t want to alienate or cut off a large number of people who had been on the service for years and moved very carefully in adding new capabilities to the sim. The sim looks like it can run on a potato computer because that’s a deliberate choice.
2. The oval community is massive, and there are ZERO worthy competitors to iRacing in this space. Recent NASCAR games from a large publisher infamously lived a very short life, and believe me I’ve dabbled in some community mods for Assetto Corsa and I can tell you they do not hold up at all against the quality of the oval experience on iRacing. I understand that rFactor 2 has some very good oval content but it is thin on the ground and participation would be non-existent. AMS2 probably has the best oval experience outside iRacing but again it’s limited to a handful of tracks and cars. I don’t have the numbers to back up the following claim, but the size and depth of the paid subscribers in the oval community could probably support iRacing’s business on its own.
3. Real life race car drivers in their thousands use iRacing on a regular basis. I’ve personally raced against (or more accurately driven slowly on the same track at the same time as) drivers from F1, IndyCar, NASCAR, Supercars, DTM, WEC, MotoGP, and many others who I didn’t notice or didn’t know of at the time. Having a scrap of a chance to end up in an IMSA race with Max Verstappen causes more people to sign up for a race just to be able to say that they were on track with him, or even beat him somehow. No other sim has that drawcard.
4. This video doesn’t touch on the incredibly solid e-sports platform that iRacing is. There is a huge foundation for sim racers to try and make their way up to one of the many Pro series that are available if they are talented enough. The biggest sim racing e-sports prize is the eNASCAR iRacing Coca-Cola series, which awards the champion every year a $50,000 prize in a final event that’s held live at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. And similar to point 3 above, mortals like myself can race with these people and have a great time doing so, even if we have no chance of beating them.
5. To make a final point, aside from console games like Gran Turismo, iRacing is the most user friendly sim I’ve ever interacted with. The menus may be ancient but they are clear and easy to navigate. Setting up everything from peripherals to screen setup is a breeze. I wish other sims made it as simple to calculate FOV based on screen size, shape and distance. And believe it or not, I like the fact that the FFB options are basically nonexistent compared to other sims and you don’t need to spend an hour trying to fine-tune a feel that you like. It keeps things focussed and relevant.
Well for me, iracing does the driving part really good and i like the graphics. Dont forget rf2 where almost drifting was quickest way to drive or ams2 floaty feeling. They all has something. I have all these most popular sims, but i just like the feeling of iracing the best.
I also subscribed lmu, I like their championship system better. The races are held on set days and times and once you sign up for the championship you choose the car and you can't change it more. You do the whole season competing with the same people more or less. And this is much more realistic.
Wait until I tell you about the iRacing championships. You literally get both daily races, longer races on the weekend, and special events.
Just because you pay for a subscription it doesn't mean that iracing is not a sim. That's like paying for SKY TV and then saying that they are not TV Channels, That's nonsense. Every racing sim has issues even if people don't want to acknowledge it. Iracing is surviving because of it's ranking system. It doesn't do anything else better. I can get a 15-20 year-old sim to look, sound & play better than iracing.
Also most induystral sims if not made from the ground up are so much more exxpenisve then iracing every will! Not to mention the total amount you can put into iRacing is actually very little compared to the vasy majority of games and Sim on steam... Not to mention the biggest mobile games which dwarf evwen rffortnight in anayuel revune... So yeah if cost meant sim itwas then sims were the insanely expensive onmes vven comercal inide sims due to the nature of their game engines and sim data and the time it takes to polish them... So to the vast nmajoity of people even now when the sim market has massively cooled thanks to modern gme design methiods... Most people think more expsnive sim are factually better from cost alone... Like this aruement is still very common among the DCS community and when was the last time anyone say Ace combat was a better sim then DCS?
Watch the video again and listen closely.
Im a busy dad that plays only offline, and even there, Iracing does it better than most sims
buy AC and never look back, thank me later.
with their pricing for content - they should steward the offical races. having your rating destroyed by raging trolls screaming is trash for the amount you have to pay.
you knocked it out of the park, amazing video
Also, sunk cost fallacy plays a huge part.
Competition is the main thing iracing delivers, if you jump right now into lfm on acc, you'll be dead last in every race
I don't get it. Are you saying they like it ACC is too real so people don't like because it takes too much time to get good?
@@blackrahk2037No, he's saying that iRacing has a matchmaking system that works and won't pair you in a lobby full of aliens everytime.
@@blackrahk2037 Kinda, the first hurdle to overcome in acc is the setup, the default setups are trash and if you don't know/want to setup a car, you're just leaving performance on the table, the second hurdle is the "counter strike" effect, the game has been out for so long and there's only one "map" per track to master, so everyone already knows "all the angles". So when you join a race right now, 90% of the grid is generally 4 seconds faster than you, whereas in iracing, like @Terrtail said, you'll be matched with people that are closer to you in skill
the setups are generally half a second off my HYMO ones. In Fanatec GT3 or IMSA, i can also have the grid filled with aliens and im so much time off.
you are probably more used to iracing than ACC, hence the delta will be higher. like any sim, you have to spend time to get faster, doesnt matter if its iracing, acc, ac, lmu or whatever.
@ but a rookie will not jump straight to imsa or fanatec gt3 in iracing, thus he will not be placed in splits with aliens
Started sim racing 3 years ago. Went from a desk setup. To a full sim rig in that time. I've been to busy with the likes of AC ACC R3E RF2 LMU to even have time for iRacing but you may have just twisted arm
honestly, I think the loyal playerbase doesn't make iRacing ie. keep the tyre system just "because they can", but because they can plan far ahead. they will still have that playerbase in 2026. I remember talking about the weather in 2013, but that only came out this year. same for track updates: how long before ie. Silverstone got it's 2011 update? it took years to arrive.
same for the tyre update, it's coming, but they don't need to rush it.
other sims see their player numbers go down with issues like this, so there's an urgency to fix them. and sometimes you see patches fixing one problem but bringing several others.
so yeah, iRacing is in a luxury position, but it's not because they're lazy, or feel like "they can leave it".
and on the graphics: iRacing is 5 years older than AC, but if you don't count third party addons, the graphics look much more up to date than vanilla AC.
You nailed it. If all of the sims were the same cost, iRacing still wins because it’s a service that’s consistent, reliable and convenient. I’m hopeful there’s competition at some point to push things forward, but it’s going to take much bigger companies and a dedication to multi-player ecosystem first. Everything else second.
The biggest money throwaway is buying other sims trying to avoid Iracing. Once you eventually join you realize why it costs what it does, and then you ignore everything else, because it is not nearly as good.
I'll stick with the convenience of iRacing.
Years ago I bought the new Electric race cars in RF2 for $50.- and drove them twice.
AC is a nightmare with all those extras and weather and millions of mods, everything special.
FFS I just want to drive! AMS2 is NOT cheap with the DLC's. etc.
dude why you think people only play simracing to compete? some just want to cruise for fun thats why people play ac. Ok i get it that for competitive racing nobody beat iracing but people just dont only race competitively. This is why many iracing elitist thinks we just want to race competiitively forever.
@@macubasu le mans ultimate gives for 30 bucks an experience no other sim gave, i find myself better in there than iracing. drivers are bad in low rank lobbies alright, but you get the best sim under it. iracing is so far from reality with its driving model cars lose the reason why they're fun. hypercars are fun cause they have very low grip but a lot of power. iracing made them into perfect LMP1s. you're not getting the fun of the cars youre driving all for an insane price. its unacceptable.
@@kotarojujo2737 Sounds like you haven't tried iracing. You are like how I was before I got on iracing. I played many other sims, but have abandoned literally all of them since iracing. Don't knock it till you try it.
@benson_weaver see? thats elitism behaviour. NOT EVERYONE THAT PLAY SIMS WANTS TO COMPETE. SIMPLY SOME JUST WANT TO CRUISE AND CHILL WITH STREET CARS AND FREEROAM WITH RELATIVELY REALISTIC PHYSICS. so you basically just like discredit everybody that only drive car irl too and they should drive racecar on track everyday. thats doesnt make sense.
It's interesting when folks discuss iRacing having outdated graphics, when it's the only one that seems to actually be able to put the car and tire on a racing surface.. We often then see AC, ACC, rFactor, et. al. gameplay where the cars are floating atop it.
This is exactly why I think iRacing feels the best. No other Sim feels like the car is connected to the road.
This is a good take for people new to the sim world. For those who league raced NR2003 and moved into iRacing, the matchmaking and lobby racing system means nothing to most of us. The additions and expansion of different racing genres within the service are nice additions, but have only hurt the development of iRacings original and main focus that they have a monopoly on...and that is oval racing. As someone who has been Sim-ing for 30+ years, iRacing only does one thing well compared to the other sims, and it's not where the rubber meets the road.
Hah, I thought this was one of your mates barrage of uploads for a second. Wames Jest would be proud!
Compition on Iracing is fantastic. There is layer upon layer of skill and ability drivers have.
Call of duty player nba 2k player spend way more money than us they buy the same game every years plus season passes skins is time to stop crying about this subject
I think "good enough physics to be a sim" hit the nail on the head. iRacing does matchmaking the best and the rest it does at a good enough level. Also, for the most part, there is a lot of good development. Sure, there are sometimes flops, like GTP. But there is no reason to think that 2-3 years dow nthe line iRacing will not be even better. I think the subscription model is essential to allowing continuous development.
If iRacing made it so you could race offline in practice mode without an active paid subscription then they would 100% beat almost ever other sim racing title
Or make it pay per race?
Funny how everybody is quick to join the social media pants shitters when iRacing gets a car wrong, but there's crickets when they get it just right.
Bottom line, iRacing is successful because they were first in and best dressed in the realm of multiplayer sim racing. They didn't have any real competition until recently and most of the people who criticize the game are doing so for clickbait.
Everything is great until you want to race alongside your friends in official series races
iRacing is the Tibia of racing. Fanboys will die playing it.
I don’t know, the ams2 fanboys can be worse I think 🤔 lol
This: 'Low resistance, integrated, simple solutions will always win'. I think iRacing could be described as elegant. That's why it's so attractive. AC Evo with seamless integrated multiplayer might be a challenger, but we'll see.
We need a competitor to iRacing like Valorant was to Counter Strike. Do the same online focused business model as iRacing to give iRacing competition and force them to raise their standards. If the profitability of iRacing is to be believed, it should be totally worth it for someone to do this just as Valorant has been entering the market to directly compete with Counter Strike with the same business model.
The convenience factor is huge for me, it’s like Steam but for car experiences.
Yeah, I leave iRacing for experiences I can’t find there, like drifting in AC or rally in RBR, but even messing with Le Mans Ultimate lately, and really enjoying a lot of aspects, a part of me is definitely caught on the fact that I can already do it in iRacing, and whether the nuance of the physics or fidelity of the graphics matters to at all past the novelty of it.
And that experience is double when I go to AM2, RR and others, and even keeps me from having a reason to give a crap about Rennsport. Again, what is it offering that I’m not getting in Iracing already. Which, no shade to devs but, Iracing just kinda has a whole segment on lock, and it’s not gonna move easily.
You also have a race every hour or every half and hour. Where in lowfuelmotorsport you have to wait two hours. Also has a better progression system if you start in rookies imo
Best explanation as it regards to me. I want to race people and it gives me that anytime any day.
It's not even expensive, it's just War Thunder level expensive and offers much better experience
5:27 I have a playlist on youtube
What I also do. Is just download the song off of youTube or record the song via obs then convert it to mp3, rename the mp3 to the song name and listen to it.
I’ve been switching back and forth from ACC to iRacing, but may switch to iRacing full time.
Not because I like iRacing more, but because i live in the US. My UK buddies are 6 hours ahead of me, and other than weekends I don’t get a chance to race with them very often.
It's esentially WOW. I would say Star Citizen but it hasn't been in Alpha forever. I use Prime for my music and haven't purchased music since I stopped DJ'ing in 2016. RFactor Pro is the top, but is not available for consumer use. They have the keys like NVIDIA has the keys to the GPU space. They charging 2K for a 5090 because they found out they could during covid.
As a rally and drift fan, I'm still looking for the perfect track sim to mess around. I can't play whenever I want so iRacing is really convenient for daily races but the feeling of driving on eggshells is really really annoying. Now I'm waiting for AC EVO and LMU...
It's the same outside simracing, dayz and eafc are also great examples of this, if you do nothing, change nothing people will come back.
I'm really liking LMU multiplayer ranking system (simple and inplemented in-game) though its limited in car choice.
For gt3 lovers, LMU and ACC LFM are very good alternatives.
Really nice take on it great video to be fair...
Iracing and World of warcraft have the same principle. Subscription base always beat buy to play.... ALWAYS we can have a 10 hour talk as to how this beats it at any time.. i am playing wow since 2008. and i play iracing for 3 years now. (well since i was playing wow i didn't have time for something else lol) Anw.. to have so many servers running on parallel at the same time of all those categories of racing it IS NOT CHEAP at ALL and WONT happen on any other game ever (official servers ofc community servers don't count).
Now the second part is that, lets say i bought AMS2 3 years ago and no one was playing it and i waste 100euros on it. After 1-2 weeks i was like i should have invest these money in Iracing due to the fact that i would have that content to play with someone else... It is the same with RF2 i bought the DLC and no one play it almost... but if i bought content in iracing it will be there.... i will still racing in it with other players even if 10 years have passed i have content that i still race in like lets say SPA or Monza etc etc that i still drive even if i bought them 3 years ago and i am sure will drive them in 2028 or whatever.... The value of that 15euros is way more in Iracing. They constantly improve the game. the QUALITY if the items you buy is TOP. i bought a lot of DLCs on other racing games that i didn't even play them enough in the end so the 30-40euros i WASTED on those games i WISH i gave them to Iracing..... You feel more invested you feel that your time practicing in iracing is worth it that you learn it cos it will be there for many years to race and use that time you invested in it....
And don't get me started that we don't have good enough PCs to run max simulation even if they gave it to us..... the Head Dev of RF2 said it once in a podcast... so i guess all the sims luck realism due to the tech that we do not have in our pcs YET i guess one day we might be able to have max simulation on our home pc...
This is my opinion after my years of exp in Sub based games. They get patched all the time get better and better. on a pace no other Buy to play game/sim due to the fact that they have constant stream of money fueling the dev of the game/sim
As of Jan 28th, my brief 1 year stint with iRacing will be over and I will be uninstalling it. You're right about the service, but the "sim" by itself, is hot garbage to me. I'll stick to ACC, AMS2, LMU and RaceRoom. 🙂
All facts. Every once in awhile I’ll go to ACC, AMS2, even LMU, but always go back to iR.
One of the things that irritates me is almost *every* *new* *sim* is about road racing. Oval racing, both asphalt and dirt, is singlehandedly done by iRacing only, and that's a huge market. You may think it's the US only (which is pretty huge anyway) but there's a huge appeal of it in many international/non-US countries too. Australia has numerous dirt oval racing series like the US, with midgets, stocks, late models, etc., plus many Europeans like oval racing too. Why no one tries to do something other than the same old road racing GT3 route, I don't know. The last one to try was a game from 2008 called ARCA Sim Racing, built on rFactor code.
What you beat around the bush by calling "convenience, "process" or "solutions" has its name - it's called GAMEPLAY DESIGN. IRacing is first and foremost a well-designed, functional competitive online video game with huge playerbase. And yes, to compete with iRacing other devs need to deliver something more than a simulation. They need to deliver gameplay that will captivate people. The reason Assetto Corsa is popular is because it delivers unlimited sandbox-style gameplay possibilities. The reason F1 games are popular (aside from the license) is because they provide unparalleled career mode experience, that several content creators have built their entire channels around. The reason ACC is popular is thanks to LFM, which provided the same competitive gameplay framework around it that iRacing has inherently.
That's not a new observation, it's just that simracing community is completely blind to the role and importance of gameplay in their obsession around physics and realism, and sometimes even disrespectfully dismissive of it, as if games are beneath them. Every sport is a game, and racing is a sport. The sooner simracers realize that and how gameplay design would improve their experience, the better for the state of simracing genre. Simracing titles need to be sports games, not just tech demos. IRacing understood that and that's why it's the most popular title.
I feel like you could also see it like fifa: Ea brings out new game every year for at least 70 euro or something like that. The amount of people buying fifa over and over again is just insane.
And for the service amount of updates fixes… I think is worth 10 bucks a month I mean just think about streaming services.
Herd mentality explained in this video.
ONLY REASON I am on Iracing is I live in the states, on the west coast and have kids. 8pm or later during the week is my only opportunity to race and Iracing is the ONLY sim with full lobbies. If that changes I will move away from Iracing
I’m in Calif, there’s no full lobbies at 8:00pst. Maybe 5:00-6:00 pst. Now maybe the Miata or rookie classes. West coast racing has always been this way in iracing or sim racing as a whole
You are absolutely right. Unfortunately iRacing doesn't have real competition. Also, iracing in my view, is by far the most challenging sim to be fast in, wich is great from a competitive perspective
To address the pricing issue, you can earn up to $8 credit each season and price discounts for owning more content
You can earn up to $10 per season for participation.
@FabianWinklerRacing yes! I received $8 this season so had that # in my head. Bought Husets, only cost $1
For me it's all about short ovals. No other "sim" really offers American short track racing to the level iRacing does.
I assumed you meant "Strap in" at the beginning there but then I looked at iRacing's pricing model again
😂😂😂
Similar to Iracing I think even older games like FM2-4 it makes sense why they did well because the features carried the games more than the physics/graphics and still required xbl to race online...etc. Now its a graveyard on newer forza titles and rightfully so because devs didnt cater to what players wanted feature wise. I still think iracing needs to adopt some form of free to play racing still. Even if it's simple hotlap leaderboards or ability to test out every car.
That's a great point
This guy gets it!
2 year membership with the discount is $100 =$50/year which is what other games typically cost to purchase. Add on top each year the updates are included and most people don’t have to buy new cars tracks all the time. I switched from ACC to iracing about a month ago and agree that it’s much easier to get into a race and much more addicting. Sure other games you can have forever without needing to repurchase or subscribe, but the amount of content on iracing can’t be beat both in terms of racing types and amounts of races/practices 24/7.
Yea right, I don't even buy a full price game every 3 years, let alone one that has physics issues
iRacing is great. The only thing I don't like about it is driving.
FFB is like turning the head of a dead raccoon ….
Absolutely spot on video IMO
Accurate commentary, well done.
Honestly I had so much hope for other games to rise and make iRacing worry but it almost seems like they don't want to compete with iRacing in that aspect. They make great sims that people eventually move on from and get back to iRacing.
iRacing is like a gaming console you just turn it on and play whenever you want (for the most part) simple, affective and gets you what you wanted. Is it perfect? not at all but it does everything you want it to with a passing grade. It's sad that no one else wants to challenge that.
It takes a billionaire like John Henry or EA sports buying msg/s397/LMU/rf2 and replicating the servers farms
I've been on iRacing since it went public and have not looked back since. I've got AC, ACC, AMS1 and 2, RF2. I'm almost 100% on iRacing, and dabble here and then on AMS2 at this point. While true that I have spent a lot of money into iRacing, the racing itself feels better, the reliability, like you said, makes it that at almost anytime I want to hop in, I can find either an official race, or hosted race that I can enjoy and more often then not, have hard, clean races compared to my experience in other sims, makes it worth it to me. Are all the cars 100% pure to real life in feel and driving? No, and neither are any other 80$ sim. AMS is alright to me, but finding a server is a pain, some cars handle like crap, some are great. Netcode to me is even more questionnable then iRacing. But as a whole, iRacing is just more complet, enjoyable and worth my money.
You can’t compare that 💩 ams2, worse online. May be slightly better with LFM but the madness engine sucks. The plug n play and convince is IRacing’s charm. You put the time in rf2 and LMU and the “simulation” is better. I’m not talking jump back in and out 10 laps in after you’ve been iracing for 10 years
For me, its the simplicity of navigating the waters. I understand its concept easily and it doesnt challenge to jump in, only challenges me to drive. However, the lack of japanese GT cars definitely makes me sad. I also dont enjoy paying $12 per car, and paying for the circuit separately. Yes they offer discounts the more shit you buy, but i would still like more free content since youre already being actively charged for the game itself.
Iracing, ac, acc, race room, rfactor 2 , le mans ultimate and ams 2. There is one sim that I don't play anymore and that's Iracing.
Even when they delete the subscribtion and offer all the tracks and cars for free. I think this says enough.
I feel IRacing is nothing more than a carry over from when Papyrus and Sierra companies had a game called Nascar 2003 and the online servers were free to race online for several years. Nascar 2003 was allot of fun back then and I was on a couple private leagues.
When they pulled the plug on the free Sierra servers, that is when IRacing kicked off their online racing game. But everyone had to pay subscription prices and has been that way ever since.
People still do Nascar 2003 but have their own servers now and race leagues.
I went a different direction and bought only (one time buys) of many Racing games from STEAM and never did IRacing. If you do allot of weekly online Racing, then IRacing maybe for you and you will get your moneys worth. I just don't have the dedicated time anymore.
Thanks for your video.
I dont personally agree with what you say about iRacing, to me and for me its the best option as it covers all the things i want and need in a sim. They are continually investing, improving and updating. You can't make anything in this day and age that will make everyone happy in every situation. But the direction, investment and implementation of iRacing business model i can honestly say happily, Take my money! initial cost can be hi in comparison, but once you race what you love i think the ongoing costs are not that bad. If you have an issue i find forums and help desk are great and community involved. This is why iRacing is so good, i dont understand why people hate on any one sim, Just dont play it and be happy. Every sim has pros and cons! for me iRacing has more Pros than Cons and contimues to push the boundries for future development!