Since 2017, F1 esports has developed, grown, and changed significantly. With the pandemic hitting, a community being formed, and a stake increase for each race it was bound to grow. Through the years, Sim Racing has also gotten increasingly popular. It has changed rapidly since 2017 and despite dipping in activity during some years, it has remained a new and huge movement across the motorsport community.
In this article, we will state the progression of Formula One Esports from 2017 to present day, as well as any changes in trends and key figures in the sport.
2017
The F1 Esports Championship started on September 4 and ended on November 2. There were 4 heats with 10 of the 40 qualified drivers racing to get in the top 5 to advance into the finals. Overall, the top
three drivers were;
-Brandon Leigh with 74 points
-Fabrizio Donoso Delgado with 68 points
-Sven Zürner with 64 points
As this was the inaugural race in Sim Racing from Formula 1, its viewership was low in comparison to its peak in 2020. Although, viewers from 123 countries tuned in to watch the 60,000 players attempt to pass initial qualifications.
2018
This was the first full session and was split into 2 stages – the final one offering racers the ability to earn a place in one of the official Esports driver line ups with the likes of Red Bull Racing, McLaren and Mercedes
AMG Petronas Motorsport. This year, over 66,000 people competed for a spot in the qualified racers list and an added stake was introduced – a $200,000 prize fund. This year’s rankings include last years winner, triumphing again as number one.
-Brendon Leigh with 216 points
-Daniel Bereznay with 166 points
-Frederik Rasmussen with 127 points
Then in this Sim Racing tournament, 5.5 million people tuned in across specific TV networks and through live streaming services online, a huge improvement from the previous year.
2019
The third instalment of the F1 Esports Championship begun on the 11th September and ended 2 months later. Up until 2019, only 9 of the 10 official team line-ups had joined the Esports trend – Ferrari joining one year. In 2019, Brandon Leigh’s twice-reigning lead was broken as he finished fifth place behind:
-David Tonizza with 184 points
-Frederik Rasmussen with 171 points
-Daniel Bereznay with 128 points
Also, a significant increase in online viewership was accumulated in 2019, going from 5.5 million combined online and TV views, to 5.8 million online viewers alone.
2020
The Covid-19 pandemic shook the world and disrupted organised sports, championships and more. As a result of health regulations set by the government, no in-person event could take place, and because of this a larger amount of people watched the event online, increasing the streams overall. The rankings for 2020 introduced a new world champion to the mix:
-Jarno Opmeer with 196 points
-Frederik Rasmussen with 174 points
-Marcel Kiefer with 157 points
Once again, the viewership increased by almost double that of the previous tournament – passing 11.4 million live stream views alone.
2021
The Covid-19 pandemic regulations continued until 2021, meaning that this years tournament was also completely remote and live streamed. It started on 13th of October and ended on 16th of December. There were 3 main events and one final where 27 drivers got their ranks on the
podium.
-Jarno Opmeer with 195 points and securing a second consecutive world title
-Frederik Rasmussen with 187 points and securing top three for three years running
-Lucas Blakeley with 162 points
The full 2021 series reached over 23 million views spread across many digital platforms, with 13.8 million of these coming from TV and online.
2022
The 2022 championship was held online from 14th of September until 16th December. The four-event format continued from the first full session championship, including 2022, yet some things did change. The two-time consecutive champ Opmeer was knocked down to 5th place and his spot
was taken.
-Lucas Blakely with 181 points, now holding one top three position and one world title
-Frederik Rasmussen with 173 points and another year in the top three
-Thomas Ronhaar with 165 points
Although a specific view count isn’t available for this championship, the trend of increasing viewers since 2020 suggests that 2022 also saw some high numbers across TV networks and social media platforms.
2023/2024
The championships for these two years were merged due to disagreements between series organisers and drivers over sponsorships, and then more postponing of races. The dispersed races lasted from 25th of November 2023 until 9th of May 2024. In this prolonged race, a swapping of rankings was made.
-Frederik Rasmussen finally getting P1 with 172 points
-Thomas Ronhaar remaining in the top 3 with 166 points
-Bari Broumand with 150 points
The individual statistics from the race are as followed: from event one there was around 35,000, event two gained just under 43,000, three was around 41,000 and the Heineken Player 0.0 at 15,000. From the millions of views garnered over the last few years, quite a considerable dip has been gained in terms of views.
2025
The 2025 rounds of the F1 Esports Championship were hosted from 14th of January until 27th of March and went on as planned and uninterrupted in comparison to 2023/2024’s cancellations. This year, people competed for the $750,000 prize pool for themselves and their representing team, desperate to get top 5.
-Jarno Opmeer regained his world title by securing 154 points overall
-Ismael Fahssi scored 135 points
-Bari Broumand remained 3rd with 134 points
Finally in 2025, viewership peaked at an estimated 80,000 people across streaming services like twitch. We can see again a considerable decrease in engagement and views for Sim Racing.
The Future Of Esports
As Fernando Alonso said, Esports is “going to get bigger and bigger and will grow up very quickly in the next couple of years”. If organisers and teams can effectively manage and organise the championships, then views and engagement will only increase. As time progresses and technology advances, we can expect to see more young people interested and participating in sim racing.
In conclusion, the F1 Esports Championship has had it’s highs and lows as any championship does, but a quick analysis of these results leaves us with the question of whether people are distancing themselves from the great digitalisation of what has always been an adrenaline-fuelled, live- action battle, or has the F1 Esports Championship finally found its prime viewership, looking to be of the younger generation, and has honed in on their niche?
Let us know what you think!