Back in February, Stream Hatchet wrote about the growing popularity of simulated racing games. The halt in attending traditional sporting events due to the pandemic was a major factor in the trend. Aside from playing, many enjoy watching the esports tournaments associated with the genre, such as Gran Turismo’s World Tour events. Like most sports games, simulated racing games have the advantage of keeping esports fresh and exciting with guaranteed new game content yearly.
While Twitch typically dominates viewership among live streaming platforms, YouTube Gaming led the simulated racing genre from 2019-2020. Although officially shut down in July of 2020, Mixer played a huge part in dividing viewership between the platforms. Facebook Gaming and Mixer officially partnered after the Microsoft-owned platform ceased operations. With less than a 200K difference between YouTube Gaming and Twitch, the leader for viewership in 2021 isn’t certain.
- F1 Virtual Grand Prix #2 in 2020 had the most hours watched at 434K. The event also had the highest peak viewers for simulated racing esports at 308K.
- Mixer suprisingly had the most viewership for and event in 2019, the ForzaRC Invitational Series, with 23K hours watched.
- Twitch led viewership for 1 Virtual Monaco Grand Prix with 227K hours watched. This is likely because Formula 1 only had one channel on YouTube Gaming streaming the event.
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