Finland is home to the world’s best ‘virtual drivers’
Finland tops the podium when it comes to the world’s best virtual drivers, following research of the high scores and ‘achievements’ logged on more than 800 driving video games.
Pentagon Motor Group reached its definitive ranking of the countries that play home to the most Michael Schumachers of the virtual world, by using data from gaming leader board speedrun.com.
After analysing more than ten thousand achievements that include high scores, fastest laps and completion times from hundreds of driving titles, Finland ranked in pole position, with Finnish gamers responsible for the most achievements per capita.
Estonia and New Zealand claim silver and bronze, while American gamers could only sneak in at 8th. However, the United Kingdom, home to some of the world’s greatest real-life racing drivers, from Lewis Hamilton to Colin McRae, only placed in 15th. However there’s still reason for Welsh gamers to celebrate, as they ranked as the best in the nation, followed by Northern Irish and English virtual racers.
Top 15 Virtual Driving Nations:
- Finland
- Estonia
- New Zealand
- Australia
- Switzerland
- Sweden
- Lithuania
- United States of America
- Denmark
- Canada
- Uruguay
- The Netherlands
- Bulgaria
- Hungary
- United Kingdom
UK Virtual Drivers Leaderboard:
- Wales
- Northern Ireland
- England
- Scotland
To help silence the arguments of online gaming and give official bragging rights to the most skilled nations, the Pentagon Motor Group research also details where is best at particular fan favourites in the driving genre.
The findings reveal that Dutch gamers are the best at Mario Kart, Japanese players number one for the F1 series and American gamers leaders at the beloved Gran Turismo titles. With Grand Theft Auto Online, in particular, featuring a large amount of driving and racing, Estonian gamers gained the prestigious title of best GTA players, having amounted the most achievements for the series, while the virtual racers of Finland again won for cult classic The Simpsons: Hit & Run.
World’s Best Virtual Drivers (game-specific):
| Mario Kart | Gran Turismo | GTA | The Simpson’s Hit & Run | F1 | |
| 1 | The Netherlands | USA | Estonia | Finland | Japan |
| 2 | Denmark | Australia | Bulgaria | Australia | New Zealand |
| 3 | Germany | New Zealand | Denmark | UK | Germany |
| 4 | Sweden | UK | Hungary | Canada | UK |
| 5 | Finland | Russia | Norway | USA | Netherlands |
Says Johnathan Lingham, Marketing Director at Pentagon Motor Group:
“With stay-at-home restrictions having been in place around the world for the best part of a year now, many might have driven more on virtual roads than they have in real life. This got us thinking about whether certain nationalities might be more skilled than others when it comes to getting behind a control pad and logging the fastest laps.
“We included games that date all the way back to 1973’s ‘Astro Race’ so have no doubt the rankings are a true reflection of virtual driving skills around the world, and hope they inspire some friendly competition between players while we’re still at home”.
The full findings, including definitive rankings for some of the most popular driving games can be found at: www.pentagon-group.co.uk/news/where-is-best-driving-video-games
