I see that AVSIM forums have some 15k members. There are other forums and people will be members of more than one. Defining an enthusiast as someone who joins a forum, how many of them are there world-wide? 25k, 50k?

Maybe, but we are brain washing more every day!!!!! }( Philip Olsonhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg

Im sure theres a bell curve involved here in terms of users.I bet avsim has the statistics somewhere, but I bet there are less than 100 who participate here heavily and regularly. I also think there are probably another 75-100 at flightsim.com...with some cross over between the two of 25-30 based on the names i recognize.

A better measure would be the number of people who use our file library system. That number is over 142,000 as of today. That means that just over 10% are registered in AVSIM's forums.

Here's some stats for you from the last 30 days;http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/88780.jpgSo, what this tells you is that over the last 30 days:There were a total of 146,217 visits to the AVSIM Forums.The peak for daily visits was on 8/12/04 with 5,510.Of the total visits, they came from 64,545 unique IP's.In the 30 days ending at 11:56 a.m. on 8/22/04, there were over 26,000 posts with the peak day in that period being the 12 of August.

Thanks for the helpful statistics.The figure of 64,545 IPs may be an over-estimate as I presume it doesn't/can't take account of those of us with dynamic IPs. This suggests 60000 (in round figures) would be a reasonable estimateMy interest was to estimate how many "enthusiasts" there are compared with total sales of FS. This might give an indication of what weight MS might put on requests for fixes/patches/upgrades etc.Next question - what are the total sales of FS???

I've never seen a "total sales" figure for FS and don't think one is available publicly. However, an excellent guide to total FS sales is its position on weekly top 10 game sales list.I've posted them a bunch before and I'm sure you could find them with a search, but FS has been in the top 10 or close to since its release. The average unit sales to be considered "good" to "great" in the gaming business is 500,000. Top 10 sales can vary from 500,000 to millions of units. I'd venture to guess FS9 sales to have, at the very least, surpassed the million unit mark becuase it has been at or near the top 10 for over a year now.Take care,Elrond

Assuming sales are 1 million.60,000 is 6% of 1 million sales.To date 169 people have posted to "What we would want to see fixed in FS2k6...". That's less than 0.02% of 1 million sales.As FS9 is still selling, I imagine that its total sales could eventually approach 2 million (perhaps even more). This would effectively halve these percentages at least.Draw your own conclusions.

"Next question - what are the total sales of FS???"If I could answer that question, I wouldn't be doing what I am doing now and be making more money doing it, I am sure. :)

>>Draw your own conclusions.And what conclusions do you have in mind ? Am I missing something ?Michael J.http://www.reality-xp.com/community/nr/rsc/rxp-higher.jpg

>To date 169 people have posted to "What we would want to see fixed in FS2k6...". That's less than 0.02% of 1 million sales.<.....so what? I regard myself as an enthusiast and, while I have not contributed to that thread, I find I can agree with most of what has been suggested/requested. I suspect there are many many more in a similar position. Assuming that this is indeed the case, I'm afraid your percentage estimates don't really mean very much.The fact of the matter is most progress is achieved in our world as a result of proactive activity made by the relative few while the rest of us are quite content to follow their lead and reap the rewards.Microsoft knows this well, I am quite sure. Equally I feel certain that they have grown to respect the opinions expressed by those enthusiastic aficionados who have made the effort to research their subject thoroughly and are prepared to spend some time feeding their experiences and suggestions back to MSFS's developers.Often statistics are used much as a drunk uses a lamppost: not so much for illumination but more for much needed support.Mike

Well, I'm only active in AVSIM and AEROSITE, although I'm a member of the VATSIM forums also, so I don't know whether that's considered an enthusiast.On the other hand, I consider myself a Flight Simulator Enthusiast, even though I don't download a lot of files from the library (maybe one or two).

I'm quite happy to have other statistics if anyone can post them. Otherwise it becomes a matter of personal opinion.