Three years of Hawaiian sun, seasonal drops, and a surprise RC car mode later, The Crew Motorfest has crossed 10 million players. Ubisoft Ivory Tower made the announcement via Instagram, pairing the milestone with confirmation that the game is heading into a full Year 4 of content. For a live-service racing game competing in a crowded field, that number carries real weight.
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What 10 million actually means
Here's the thing: 10 million players is not the same as 10 million sales. The Crew Motorfest has benefited from multiple free trial periods since its September 14, 2023 launch, and it sits inside the Ubisoft+ subscription catalogue, meaning plenty of those players came in without paying full price. Ubisoft has been transparent about that distinction in the past, so it's worth keeping the figure in context.
That said, raw player count still signals something real. Sustaining 10 million players across nearly three years, against direct competition from Forza Horizon 5, is not a number you hit by accident. It reflects a player base that keeps returning to the island of Oʻahu rather than bouncing after a free weekend.
Year 4 speeds up the release cadence
The bigger news for active players is what comes next. Starting with Season 10 in July 2026, Ivory Tower is shifting from three seasons per year to four, cutting each season down from four months to three. That's a meaningful change for a live-service game: shorter seasons typically mean tighter, more focused content drops and less time waiting between fresh activities.
The team has already been pushing creative boundaries heading into this new phase. Season 9's RC Frenzy mode introduced miniature vehicles with custom physics, rooftop traversal routes, and a top-down camera perspective. That required Ivory Tower to essentially rebuild how the game reads the entire Oʻahu map, which is a significant engineering investment for what could have been a throwaway seasonal gimmick.
The island keeps growing
The map itself has expanded well beyond launch. Maui was added as a playable island following its announcement at Ubisoft Forward 2024, becoming available in November 2024. That kind of geography expansion is rare for a live-service racer and gives the game a genuine sense of progression beyond just new cars and playlists.
Offline mode is also on the table. Following the controversy surrounding the shutdown of the original The Crew game, Ubisoft confirmed in September 2024 that Motorfest would receive an offline mode, addressing one of the loudest concerns in the community about long-term game preservation.
Ubisoft's bright spot heading into late 2026
For Ubisoft, the timing of this announcement matters. The publisher has navigated a turbulent stretch across its portfolio, and a live-service title approaching its third anniversary with 10 million players and a committed Year 4 roadmap is exactly the kind of story the company needs heading into the second half of 2026.
The key here is consistency. Ivory Tower has kept a steady rhythm of seasonal content since launch, and the move to four seasons per year suggests the studio is confident enough in the game's trajectory to accelerate rather than coast. If you want to catch up on the game's content history or plan your approach to the new season structure, the gaming guides hub is a solid starting point for racing game strategy. For players curious about other titles pushing creative boundaries this year, Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown is worth a look if you want something in a completely different direction. Season 10 lands in July, so there's still time to get current before the new cadence kicks in.
