It seems that X-Plane is becoming very popular. I'm not sure how significant this statistics by Navigraph really are, but at least there are some numbers.

 

Reposting image here as the link isn't working

Not totally unexpected, but for me it's notable that FSX and FSX:SE together still hold more than 30%, and that P3D v3 is already down to less that 7%.

The extremely low figures of Aerofly FS2 and FSW might be due to the fact that most of their users are not Navigraph customers, and thus weren't aware of the survey. I wouldn't have known about it, if I hadn't received their newsletter.

 

This is pretty static. It shows an amount but does does this correlate to previous years / surveys? Is there any data on that. I am not a Navigraph user myself.

Baring in mind Navigraph is used by a very specific group of users. I think the actual numbers for X-Plane would probably be much higher.

Also noting, that Navigraph data can be used to update the default GPS, whereas the P3D one is for specific addons, so this may also be reflected in the results

13 minutes ago, Glenn_C said:

This is pretty static. It shows an amount but does does this correlate to previous years / surveys? Is there any data on that. I am not a Navigraph user myself.

Sorry, I was focused on the charts only on Facebook. I should have been more careful and provided a link to the whole survey results: http://blog.navigraph.com/post/167492052421/survey-results-prepar3d-x-plane-up-fsx-down

Quote

Last year, we did not pose the question as detailed. At that time, the responses were the following:

• Microsoft FSX 60%
• Lockheed Martin Prepar3D 30%
• Laminar Research X-plane 10%

 

As others have mentioned take this chart with a huge grain of salt.

7 hours ago, tonywob said:

Baring in mind Navigraph is used by a very specific group of users. I think the actual numbers for X-Plane would probably be much higher.

Right, not everyone is using Navigraph (I'm not), so this data isn't relevant for the overall sim market.

The recent usage data update at the Laminar dev blog, which captures all users and not just a special interest group, says 64% of all flights are made with default Laminar aircraft and not add-ons. For flight controls, 23% of users are flying with a mouse.

So probably at least half, and probably more, of the XP user base probably isn't using Navigraph updates. And there are others like me flying add-on aircraft with full flight controls that don't need Navigraph updates for the way we fly. 

There was a survey in the FSEconomy forums earlier this year that showed a growing shift to XP from former FSX/P3D users, but that's also a fairly narrow slice of the user base that doesn't cover the "casual" market. 

17 minutes ago, Paraffin said:

which captures all users and not just a special interest group

Can't you opt out of sending data to laminar?

24 minutes ago, Paraffin said:

Right, not everyone is using Navigraph (I'm not), so this data isn't relevant for the overall sim market.

Yes, the title of the post is a bit misleading. This is not a measure of flight sim platform marketshare. The data measures only Navigraph users.

24 minutes ago, sizziano said:

Can't you opt out of sending data to laminar?

Yes, it's a checkbox on one of the setting menus. IIRC, it's on by default, and I doubt many people change it after reading that it only sends anonymous usage data.

42 minutes ago, Henry Street said:

Yes, the title of the post is a bit misleading. This is not a measure of flight sim platform marketshare. The data measures only Navigraph users.

Yes, this popped out as a pretty big flaw right away, if looking for numbers on the overall market.

25 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

Yes, this popped out as a pretty big flaw right away, if looking for numbers on the overall market.

True, but that probably implies that the actual numbers for the overall market are even more in favor of X-Plane (compared to FSX/P3D), since I presume the vast majority of Navigraph users are IFR/airliners buffs, where P3D/FSX is way stronger that the other sims. I've been surprised to read that over 20% of navigraph users use X-Plane.

Of course this applies even more to AeroflyFS/FSW, where the airliner crowd is nonexistent.

 

1 hour ago, Henry Street said:

Yes, the title of the post is a bit misleading. This is not a measure of flight sim platform marketshare. The data measures only Navigraph users.

Which is impressive since XP11 rose by double.  And that's basically only people who fly airliners - because I can't think of many GA addons that use navigraph, except I guess the default GNS530/430 or default data.

Avsim usually does a huge survey and doesn't Laminar or .Org do one?  

I've been simming for 25 years looking at the release of FS5.0 lol!  I just can't shake this genre - I've gotten bored a few times but it's amazing what you can do!

Google offers a good statistical tool too. Here is the global trend from two years ago up to now:

https://trends.google.ch/trends/explore?date=2015-11-17 2017-11-16&q=%2Fm%2F0238h5,%2Fm%2F0dwp83,%2Fm%2F0j9mhpy

and the past week:

https://trends.google.ch/trends/explore?date=now 7-d&q=%2Fm%2F0238h5,%2Fm%2F0dwp83,%2Fm%2F0j9mhpy

Of course, every statistical tool has it's limits and requires interpretation, especially when comparing products. But X-Plane's progression in itself is impressive.

Interesting, isn't it ?

Cheers,

Pascal