Just thought it was interesting for perspective. Doesn't include non-steam players on console of course.
No sign of Zusi 3 in that, though. However TSW5 could and should be doing much better. Even if you factor in the Epic and console players and double those numbers, that’s a core player base of only around 6K. Worldwide. The simple fact is, even before the latest bugs, the game got stale. Churning out identikit routes one after another so it’s now saturated with UK electric commuter routes, most of which are stop/start bus services. Ditto Germany, 70 to 80km inter urban electric routes, using the same old stock (forthcoming third party Mittenwaldbahn will be an exception). But if I was a third party developing for TSW I’d be looking at those numbers with some alarm, certainly think twice before committing to it as a full time job if you’re only going to sell a couple of thousand or so copies of your add on. And if I was the head honcho at either DTG or Focus Entertainment, I would be summoning the senior production staff responsible for TSW and demanding an action plan to turn things around. And not by introducing a fictional blue tank engine that 95% of core players aren’t even interested in.
Why? They have the top 2 train simulators on that list, and TSW isn't that far behind TSC. Third place is in early access and, as far as I can tell, is Steam-exclusive. I disagree. It just hits home that train simulation is very niche and doesn't have a massive audience - look at TSC's all-time peak, less than 4k. If I was a third party, I'd be choosing TSW as by your own estimates, it has a much larger audience and therefore more potential for making me more money. (I may have been watching too much Spiffing Brit recently)
I don’t get it, Train Sim World has operator skins, it should be just as popular as Call of Duty, right? /s
Also Simrail the "future of train simulators" and the nemesis of TSW is way way down there with 500+ players. That shows that focusing on a certain country with limited content will really lose the appeal of players extremely fast. That's why DTG should start pushing content from new countries , Italy, France, Sweden, Norway etc , they all have interesting railways and would bring even more diversity and wider audience to the brand Zusi, i think it has 30 players or something. I love the game but the graphics interface and difficulty really brings it down when it comes to player count. I think TSW needs to mimic ETS2.A truck game that blows oeven AAA titles out of the water as it has massive player support and is just so fun and good to play. Also it has variety under the form of locations like nothing else out there.
SimRail tends to spring up in numbers when they release something new like the EN57 EMU or the ET22 freight loco. But you only have to look at their servers to see relatively few people playing it. I like the trains and routes but as I’ve said before it needs a decent single player experience with a save game. It will not sustain on multiplayer alone. That may seem ironic as I’m currently enjoying Zusi 3 which doesn’t have a save feature (though of course it should) however fairly easy to find a run tailored to your available play time.
I will admit that we may not be capturing numbers that don't go through Steam (consoles and direct from company websites if that's a thing. I don't know enough about Zusi or Simrail to know if you can buy it outside of Steam) That puts TSW above other games with no console support (and a more diverse player base that isn't only PC based) As I said Steam was all I was able to find.... BUT on the other hand Steam is huge. It's where the majority of players get their PC content now, so It does have validity as a measuring tool of not only popularity but sustainable playability. I guess the big questions to me are... 1) what is a "lot" of players relatively? When we say a "lot" of players... are we talking thousands, not hundreds of thousands of millions? That shows what a small, "niche" market this is and why DTG would reach out to the "Thomas" franchise to expand it. and 2) TSW and TSC are still up there in popularity in the "trains" genre. They are setting the standard, so it's up to the ones behind to catch up not for the ones leading the race to justify not being "more like the others" who are far behind. They very well could be "better." Anything in the world can be "improved." However, what are you comparing it to, and why would less successful games be considered "better"? It's understandably a question that can lead to lost of personal bias but it must be asked objectively. Zusi was mentioned to have multiplayer for example, but would it make TSW "better" to have that to "match" Zusi? I'm not convinced it's clear that's the case. Perhaps multi-player games are better off focusing on multi-player content they are specialized in? Like Just Trains focusing on 1980s train routes they do well.
Trainz 22 basically Trainz 19 but with a 30% higher hardware hit. If you buy into the N3V subscription model you get some revised and improved features like the new Surveyor. But the flaws are the same as they were going all the way back to earlier iterations of the programme, poor quality models, sounds and cabs. Arcade physics, no easy way to create a timetable run or scenario for the player train, having to set the route yourself. The Download Station but swamped with duplicate and cloned items (especially anything Russian), some stuff is listed but go to download and you find it requires dependencies not on the DLS or in some cases it's been removed but the listings never updated.
