Four years ago the Codemasters Formula 1 game was flying high. The pandemic had shut down the real F1 season, so Formula 1 lined up its youngest drivers on virtual grids with a mix of sports stars and sim racers to put on a show.
Seeing Lando Norris, George Russell, and Charles Leclerc battle it out in a video game brought more eyes to the game and copies were soon flying out the door.
It helped that F1 2020 was also a brilliant game. Introducing the My Team mode that allowed players to add an 11th F1 team to the grid, the whole F1 gaming scene was flying. Codemasters had nailed the feel of the 2020 cars, balancing realism with accessibility in a fun game that rewards controller and wheel racers.
Fast forward to today and player numbers have slumped. The real drivers haven't touched the F1 game outside of a few social media posts, and the core audience is full of complaints aimed squarely at Codemasters and the ground effect era has created all sorts of issues for in-game handling. On the track Red Bull's domination has replaced Mercedes' with only the thrills of the 2021 season to separate them.
However, excitement for the real F1 racing is reaching 2021 levels. As McLaren looks to dethrone Red Bull and title fights brew, could this renewed interest in the sport see players flock back to the F1 games?
Declining sales
The boost to player numbers from the Virtual Grand Prix during lockdowns and the explosion of interest in the sport thanks to the Max vs Lewis saga and Drive To Survive carried sales through to F1 22. And then the dark times came.
F1 2020 | F1 2021 | F1 22 | F1 23 | F1 24 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Steam Peak Player Count | 24,010 | 25,575 | 25,172 | 14,512 | 8,216 |
Codemasters suffered, much like the real F1 teams, from the new ground effect rules in F1 22 and the handling model really struggled. Players went from an enjoyable and predictable car in F1 2021 to a boat that struggled with understeer unless they had the throttle control of an esports driver.
The struggles of F1 22 created a lot of fan backlash, while the runaway success of Red Bull sent a lot of F1 fans back into hibernation. Sales fell for F1 23, and have taken another step backwards for F1 24.
While the above data is only PC players on Steam, meaning any players that migrated to EA's PC platform are not accounted for, this mirrors reports of struggling sales for F1 23 and a further slump for F1 24.
Even three years into this ruleset, Codemasters has struggled to make cars that are as enjoyable and straightforward to drive as those in F1 2020 and 2021. This is due to their ever-expanding size, heavier wheels, and overall lack of performance compared to the previous regulations.
Lando to the rescue?
The rejuvenation of McLaren, from the back of the grid in early 2023 to the dominant machine in mid-2024, is very similar to a career mode save in the F1 games. Since the Austrian Grand Prix, they've been the fastest car in the sport and Lando Norris is piling on the pressure to Max Verstappen in for the World Drivers' Championship.
Those fans who disappeared in '22 and '23 are starting to trickle back to F1, and as the points gap narrows and the marketing from Sky Sports ramps up we should see a renewed interest in the F1 game as well. The problem is that F1 24 is not well received in the same way F1 2020 was.
F1 24's struggles
F1 2020 has an 86 MetaScore on MetaCritic with a 7.9 user score. F1 24 is sat at 72 and 3.7 respectively. The series is suffering massively from the annual churn all sports games desperately need to break out from. Anyone considering jumping into the series after years away from the sport is unlikely to look at F1 24's MetaCritic score or its Mixed Steam reviews and be willing to drop £60 to play it.
This is the crux of Codemasters' problems right now. The decline of interest in the game has coincided horribly with a decline in quality. While EA FC can get away with shaky quality because football is always popular, F1 ebbs and flows and requires a strong game to keep a casual audience engaged.
Without it, sales fall away and the hardcore audience suffers. While Codemasters was bought by EA a few years ago, that doesn't mean they are suddenly flush with cash to invest, quite the opposite. The F1 games are made on a two-year cycle, with one team working on odd-year games and another team working on even-year games. But due to dropping sales Codemasters has suffered some layoffs in recent times. This could be the reason quality is declining in the series, or it may be the creakingly old game engine that the series runs on.
Whatever the reason, Codemasters needs to raise the quality of the game and keep its core base happy if it is to recapture the broad appeal of previous years and see its player base climb once again.