Is this game trending/having more players?

[Hero Of Chaos]

I have known this game since 2016 (The year when this game was released) and I only know one person owning this game, but fast forward to 2021 which is present, 7 more of my friends are playing this game in almost everyday as if the game is new and just released recently. My point is, if this game is getting more people playing it, then how come nobody played it back in 2016? Is it because of recent updates and it got so much better? Or is it because nobody heard about it until now?

Side note: Please don't misunderstand about thinking of me coming off as a hater. I'm actually amused and interested that the game is 5 years old, and it's getting so much attention recently. Might be worth of buying it.

[Bonk]

been playing since the beginning , game has gotten better and more popular

[Reese]

ahem
On release day(and the follow day, because timezones), the game peaked at 19,200ish players. 2 months later, it died down to about 3,500-4,000 concurrent players on average. 1 year from release, the game was averaging about 3,500-5,200 concurrent players.

From that 1 year mark, it stayed around that until about the 3rd month of 2020, when Covid started being a problem. It jumped to ~6,000-~9,000 concurrent on average, steadily increasing in 2021 to the current ~7,500 at any time. With another thousand or so making the count spike every major game update. First the first time in 2 years, ATS hit 10,000 concurrent thanks to 1.41.

The most amount of people playing at once was 19,156, 6 years ago, February of 2016(game release). Highest count since then was April 27th, 2020 with 12,939.

I'd say at least half of those interested when the game came out left and those numbers were filled with new discoverers, such as your friends. Really the game doesn't feel like the player count has grown. It has basically been the same counts since release. But sales, sales have definitely improved. There's always people streaming it, always people watching those streams, and always people playing it. It's a great game and I hope you'll like it.

Feel free to try out the demo, I hear it's only 1 version behind right now. Well worth buying it.

[room217au]

I think the rescale happening not too long after release bugged people. Maybe they thought the game had died and just stopped playing.

[Thudball LeStudd]

I'm a day-one player. My two sons saw it released first then because this is the type of games I love, I was immediately addicted. I loved it then, and I love it now. Sometimes I try other simulation games but I always come back to ATS. It has really evolved since the beginning and for sure it has grown in people playing it. Enjoy⚜

[triple88a]

Yes a tiny bit more players average. It only matters when using TruckersMP though..
One big reason why the peak players got a huge jump in july is because of the Idaho potato delivery missions from Worldoftrucks

Month Avg. Players Gain % Gain Peak Players
Last 30 Days 6,289.0 +54.3 +0.87% 12,562
July 2021 6,234.6 +1,190.2 +23.59% 12,562
June 2021 5,044.5 -251.7 -4.75% 8,405
May 2021 5,296.2 +239.8 +4.74% 10,919
April 2021 5,056.4 -257.1 -4.84% 8,852
March 2021 5,313.5 -932.2 -14.93% 9,991

[Hiro Protagonist]

COVID has seen a big jump in all sim-games (both racing and "recreational")

[Wille Wilse]

Its also alot of players that owns the game and play it occasionally. Lots of people also owns both ETS2 and ATS and changes between them, like me in both cases even though I havent been able to play them in quite long time due to other reasons.