As a game, Rocket League came as something pretty unique. It’s a game with a fairly simple description: cars and football with high-powered jet engines. The game was developed by Psyonix but was purchased by a much bigger company, Epic Games, in May 2019. It has shifted from a somewhat unknown gem to becoming one of the biggest and most-watched esports across the globe, and of course with this recognition comes a meta, especially cars.
Despite having dozens of options to choose from, a handful of Rocket League cars stand out as clear favorites when compared to the rest.
Credit: Psyonix
Since the start the Octane has been the poster of Rocket League. Many pro players have been using this car since way back in Season 1 of the RLCS. After this, Psyonix added an Octane statue to one of its best maps, the DFH Stadium. To this day around 70% of competitive players use the Octane in RLCS and this is likely due to its balanced hitbox.
The Octane is one of the 3 cars to be unlocked at the beginning of Rocket League and was one of the cars carried through from Rocket League’s predecessor, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars (SARPBC).
Credit: Psyonix
The Fennec was released on July 1st 2019, which uses the Octane hitbox. However, unlike the Octane, the Fennec has sharper edges making it much easier for the player to visually see its hitbox. Some people find this more comforting and easier to get power and placement when hitting the ball. More and more players have transitioned from cars such as Octane and Dominus to play the Fennec in the RLCS.
This car is amongst the most popular cars in the game and due to its growing popularity, it joined the Octane and Dominus in becoming the 3rd car to get Esports team decals, released on February 1st, 2021.
Credit: Psyonix
Dominus had seen much larger popularity throughout the earlier stages of Rocket League, which seems to have decreased in most regions over time. With this being said, it has remained one of the most used in the OCE region where many players still seem to favor it.
It was part of one of the earliest DLC packs in the game before becoming free when Rocket League became free to play and has remained the most popular premium body in the game.
Since its first DLC release, it is one of the most popular cars used by high-ranked players.
As a note, this car resembles the 1969 Pontiac GTO.
Credit: Psyonix
This car is part of the Plank hitbox group and is Rocket League’s number 1 DLC car. The Batmobile was made popular by well-known players such as Kuxir97 and Fireburner in the early days of RLCS.
However, when Psyonix changed things, making it so cars didn’t all have unique hitboxes, the number of players using this car dropped as it didn’t have the same feel. The Batmobile is a very strong car for mechanics such as flicks with its long, wide, and thin frame. This makes it easier to get your car under the ball causing it to gain huge bursts of power.
The Batmobile has limited customizations, only being able to change its color and the goal explosions.
Cars in Rocket League come in groups depending on their hitboxes. There are 6 different hitbox groups in Rocket League depending on their height, length, and width.
The Octane hitbox is not the longest or widest but is the tallest which brings a lot of ball control by hitting from the front or the side of the car. This group has the least weaknesses due to its midground for most things.
These cars have the longest of all hitboxes meaning it sacrifices some height and width. This type of car is used a lot within the freestyling community with many well-known freestylers claiming this is the best group for air dribbles, flip resets, and all things freestyle.
Dominus cars have a very balanced hitbox making them a great choice for new players when learning mechanics, such as dribbling. This group is just shorter than the Breakout and Plank in length but is slightly taller and wider.
The Plank hitbox is made of long, flat, and wide cars. They are the 2nd longest cars however they are the widest and flattest cars. This makes them excel at things such as 50/50s as they have a wide surface area making contact with the ball.
These are cars that are somewhere between the Dominus and Octane hitboxes; they are slightly longer than Octane, taller than Dominus, and not quite as wide as either of them.
Here’s a very well put together video by username Wayton Pilkin, to learn everything you need to know about the car hitboxes.
Read next: How to get better at Rocket League – Simple steps to improve quickly
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