They’ll say they don’t get it, young simmer. They’ll ask, “You do what all day? You work for a living, and then come home to play a videogame where you work a different, more grueling job?” They won’t see the irony in saying that and then queuing for ranked in Street Fighter 6. But take solaceāthere are thousands of people just like you who wouldn’t trade those virtual Swiss skylines for anything.
In fact, it seems like there are more than ever. Over 13 years after its release in 2012, Euro Truck Simulator 2 has surpassed its all-time concurrent player count peak on Steam, according to SteamDB. At time of writing, an hour has passed since the game hit a new all-time peak of 72,678, and while the number is flickering a bit, it’s rare to see such a seemingly niche game so hoppin’ over a decade after it came out.
There are a few apparent reasons for this. The game just got two new DLCs on the same day: Nordic Horizons, which takes players through northern Scandinavia, and Forest Machinery, a smaller-scall add-on that piles on doodads like wood chippers and mulchers. Not to drive, but to haul across the open road. This is a trucking game, remember?
If you aren’t familiar, the game has been celebrated for its realism (so much so that it’s enjoyed a role in driver fatigue research). But even if you go in not knowing a stick shift from a snowdrift, the appeal seems to be less in the exacting fidelity and more in the meditative quality of driving through scenic areas for long periods of time. It’s like Power Wash Simulator in that way, though I think I’d get more out of digital highway hypnosis than spraying the muck off of playground slides. At least in one case, I can pull out all the trucker lingo I learned from Smokey and the Bandit. (Nobody likes it.)
