Certain hyper-challenging games bring the live-streaming community together. Streamers participate to prove their gaming prowess, and fans turn out in droves to watch their incremental progress towards the finish line. Getting Over It had this effect in 2017, and more recently Super Mario Maker inspired players to complete its most impossible levels before Nintendo shut down Wii U and 3DS servers.
Nadeo’s Trackmania is the latest game to benefit from this trend. Trackmania’s appeal lies not only in playing its tracks, but also in creating them – much the same way the Flash game Line Rider hooked kids back in 2006. The game experienced a sudden surge in popularity after a new, ultra-difficult map was released on the 3rd of May titled “Deep Dip 2”. The track was masterminded by Trackmania mapper SparklingW, receiving its own trailer to hype up fans of the original Deep Dip track.
Thanks to this previous popularity and the attention of key streamers, Trackmania is performing incredibly well on live-streaming platforms. It’s worth looking at just how popular Trackmania has become among the top driving/racing games in live streaming.
Trackmania Popularity Surges Upon New Map Deep Dip 2’s Release
Trackmania owes its success in May almost exclusively to Deep Dip 2. In the two and a half weeks since Deep Dip 2 released, 8.1M hours of Trackmania content has been watched across all platforms. 79% of this viewership came from Twitch, which seems fairly typical given the platforms’s dominance with competitive gaming. However, it’s worth noting that there were 19K hours aired on Twitch to produce this result, whereas YouTube contributed almost 21% of all viewership with just 414 hours aired.
A close-to three week surge in popularity may seem immense for this kind of challenge-oriented game, but there are two factors contributing to the longevity of Deep Dip 2’s success. Firstly, the map itself is a grueling climb up a tower consisting of 16 floors that must be conquered without any checkpoints. Naturally, this means even pro players take a long time to complete the map. Secondly, the challenge is being run as a tournament with a prize pool of $30K, with separate serves for competitors and the public. This incentive is motivating players to persist in the face of overwhelming odds.
Trackmania Streamers Like Wirtual Turn Out to Conquer Deep Dip 2
Given the legacy of the original Deep Dip, numerous streamers had a reputation to upkeep by taking on Deep Dip 2. Wirtual was by far the most popular Trackmania streamer tackling Deep Dip 2, bringing an average minute viewership (AMA) of 15.6K over the course of 2024. Note, however, that this viewership takes into account both his Twitch main channel and his highlight YouTube channel (WirtualTV). Regardless, Wirtual rose 445 ranks into the top 50 streamers by hours watched for the week of Deep Dip 2’s release.
Wirtual was not without competition, however. Bren_TM2 came second with an AMA of 5K and over 1M hours watched. While his streaming results are less impressive, Bren_TM2 is the man to beat: He was the first player to conquer the original Deep Dip, with Wirtual coming second. As of the time of writing, Wirtual sits on the 13th floor, slightly leading Bren_TM2. For interested viewers, Wirtual even has his own dedicated website for tracking his progress up the tower, and there’s even a site for tracking the event’s progress.
Trackmania Faces Stiff Competition in the Driving and Racing Genres
Although Trackmania’s popularity surged, it still has big-name driving/racing IPs to contend with. Chief among these is Rocket League, which has already pulled in 45.8M hours watched for 2024 so far. Rocket League’s performance is no doubt helped by esports viewership, with the first RLCS Major in Copenhagen having kicked off in March. Compared to this immense viewership, Trackmania’s 13.4M hours watched seems relatively small and puts the game in 4th place behind Mario Kart 8 and Euro Truck Simulator 2.
Looking over the top driving/racing games, one notices the diversity of subgenres available as represented by the top four titles. Rocket League is a driving game mechanically, but its gameplay is more like a football game. Mario Kart 8 is a kart racer, Euro Truck Simulator 2 continues the trend of simulator games being popular on live-streaming platforms, and Trackmania is a community-centric track builder. Each game satisfies its niche, all being united simply by their central driving mechanism. Note that for this analysis, however, games like GTA V and The Simpsons: Hit & Run were excluded due to the sheer variety of gameplay types outside of driving.
Developers may like to capitalize on this versatility of the driving/racing genre. Nadeo has done well to create a driving game that fosters community development, making it well-suited to live-streaming platforms and online discourse. But it could go further, investing resources into creating its own challenging maps to bring its most competitive players together. Stream Hatchet will watch to see if this interest in Trackmania can be sustained moving forward.
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