A full 24-hour race at Circuit de la Sarthe always draws a big crowd in sim racing. Over the October 24 weekend, Studio 397’s Le Mans Ultimate set a new all-time Steam player record, reaching 11,941 concurrent drivers during its official 24 Hours of Le Mans Special Event.
That beats the game’s previous record of 8,565 players from February 2026 by nearly 40 percent, showing how much difference team driver swaps and full-length special events have made for the sim.
Full 62-Car Grids and Cold Tires Out of the Pits
Across two official time slots on Friday and Saturday, Studio 397 ran up to 62 cars per split across Hypercar, LMP2, and LMGT3. Drivers needed at least a B2 Safety Rank to enter, and the event followed WEC rules with open setups, no tire warmers, and a 58-tire limit for qualifying and the race.
Leaving the pits at 2:00 AM in-game on cold slicks without tire warmers while Hypercars pass at 330 km/h down the Mulsanne Straight is always tricky. Teams that got through their out-laps cleanly without flat-spotting a new set of tires saved a lot of time overnight.
Driver Swaps Made the Difference
When Le Mans Ultimate first launched in Early Access, it was missing the main feature endurance teams needed: working driver swaps. Seeing nearly 12,000 players turn up for a 24-hour team race shows that endurance racers were waiting for the team features to come together.
