Another successful race weekend at Le Mans has drawn to a close, with fans all around the world reflecting on the results. As well as a major victory for Ferrari, Le Mans Ultimate also saw a significant win.
The real-world racing has inspired fans to hop into virtual races, with Le Mans Ultimate experiencing a major player spike during the world-famous endurance race.
Double victory
It’s safe to say Le Mans went very well for Ferrari. After taking victory for the first time in 59 years last year, the prancing horses reached the top step of the podium for the second year in a row.
Car number 50, driven by Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, and Nicklas Nielsen took the Hypercar class win by just over 14 seconds from Toyota. If that wasn’t enough, Ferrari also managed to take third with car number 51.
It was a great weekend for the Tifosi, even with the third car failing to finish the race. In winning the Hypercar class this year, Ferrari also became the first manufacturer to win both Le Mans and the Monaco Grand Prix in the same year since 1934.
That double victory was a record-breaker, and it looks like Ferrari’s success also inspired the virtual endurance racing world. During the race weekend, Le Mans Ultimate's player numbers surged as fans flocked to complete their own virtual races.
Le Mans Ultimate experiences major player spike
Despite the issues facing Motorsport Games, Le Mans Ultimate continues to defy expectations. After selling higher than expected upon entering Early Access, player numbers have seen a massive resurgence of player alongside the real 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Just as Ferrari was preparing to cross the finish line and take victory, the game reached a peak of just over 2,000 concurrent players on Steam. This was a significant spike compared to previous weeks, where player numbers struggled to climb past 1k.
Players numbers remained around 2k even as the podium celebration in France died down, only returning to the usual amount over five hours later. Since then, numbers have mostly remained consistent, with a small rise once more at the time of writing.
Releasing Le Mans Ultimate before the real event was clearly a priority for Motorsport Games. With Le Mans Ultimate remaining their only profitable property, the game was released in Early Access in order to build up the player base and gain feedback to help shape the game.
Just in time for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a free update added the BMW M Hybrid V8, along with 2024 liveries for the existing hypercars.
As Motorsport Games CEO Stephen Hood told us in our recent interview, Le Mans Ultimate’s June update is just the start of additional content coming to the game. This will feature a mix of free updates and paid DLC to keep the player base coming back for more.
Did you celebrate Ferrari’s win with a race in Le Mans Ultimate? Let us know in the comments below.
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