BeamNG.drive

Submission 228

About

BeamNG.Drive is the name of a driving simulator game developed by BeamNG studios and released on Steam on May 29th, 2015 as an early access game. The main gameplay is being able to drive different styles of vehicles in multiple different simulated environments with some real-world physics applied in terms of traction, steering, and crashing.

History

On May 29th, 2015, as part of the early-access launch of the game, the official BeamNG^[1] YouTube channel released a Steam Early Access Trailer showcasing some of the game's features, such as the physics and environments, as well as the crashes that the player can cause. The trailer, which earned over 4.2 million views in eight years, also included announcements for frequent updates and full mod support for players, which was popular with fans at the time (shown below).

Five years later, as part of showing updates for the game, BeamNG's official YouTube channel^[2] uploaded a showreel which showed some of the newer models and better optimized physics. The video, uploaded on February 11th, 2020, received over 8.7 million views while helping to re-ignite interest in the game (shown below).

Online Presence

Since it's release, BeamNG had some players playing it, and saw substantial growth in 2023. In late 2023, content creators started to use the game's newest physics updates to make content based around the car crashes. On October 29th, 2023, the comedian and YouTuber Jaden Williams^[3] uploaded his BeamNG gameplay while under the guise of his 'dad' character, pretending that the chat was their kid and that they are driving, with his various crashes in-game causing him to act as though he actually crashed the car, earning over 2.3 million views in one year (shown below).

Through the use of mods to make the game more realistic and have better simulation, some content creators were able to recreate crashes and turn them into compilations. On May 14th, 2024, the YouTuber and content creator Patrick Zeugirdor^[4] uploaded a compilation called 'BeamNG Drive – Realistic Freeway Crashes #10' which received over 2.8 million views in five months as part of a longer series of BeamNG content he made using various mods (shown below).