13 minutes ago, RamonB said:

A million people used or tried MSFS through the Xbox Game Pass $1 dollar deal or because they already had Game Pass.
That does not mean they "bought" it.

Peak simultaneous users on Steam were over 60,000, and all of those and probably quite a few more did indeed buy it. How many returned it is anyone's guess however, but you are only allowed two hours of use before you own it forever, so:

28.9 hours median playtime in last 2 weeks

45.2 hours median total playtime

15.9 hours average playtime in last 2 weeks

34.2 hours average total playtime

 

Still an awful lot of people. Estimations just for Steam are:

130,000 .. 240,000 by PlayTracker

200,000 .. 500,000 by SteamSpy

283,260 .. 849,780 based on reviews

Edited September 26, 20205 yr by HiFlyer

2 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

Peak simultaneous users on Steam were over 60,000, and all of those and probably quite a few more did indeed buy it. How many returned it is anyone's guess however, but you are only allowed two hours of use before you own it forever, so.....

Still an awful lot of people.

Estimations just for Steam are: <snip>

 

I surely hope so. The more the better for the Franchise.

But not according to Steam Charts - Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Seems like Peak simultaneous users on Steam has been steadily declining since launch.
September daily average in my Excel page: Current: 8,970 Peak 11,509.

17 minutes ago, RamonB said:

September daily average in my Excel page: Current: 8,970 Peak 11,509.

Some grains of salt are needed because of insufficient data:

We still have no idea how many additional people are online via Gamepass.

We have no idea how many are simply monthly subscribers or actual purchasers. (might not matter, since its all money-in-pocket for MS)

We don't know how many additional users (if any) were made aware of and were drawn into game pass solely by all the ruckus over MSFS (I am now a subscriber with several games)

X-plane is listed as having up to a million Steam purchasers after being on Steam for several years. (their daily usage numbers are unremarkable)

MSFS has (possibly) close to that after a month on sale.

What's happening is still open to interpretation. (Glass half full/Glass half empty) Only Microsoft knows!

To me, it seems like an encouraging start!

EDIT: Anecdotally, I notice that in multiplayer, so far I have not found anyplace in the world without a cloud of fellow-flyers. I take that as a good sign,

Edited September 26, 20205 yr by HiFlyer

8 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

Some grains of salt are needed because of insufficient data:

We still have no idea how many additional people are online via Gamepass.

What's happening is still open to interpretation. (Glass half full/Glass half empty) Only Microsoft knows!

To me, it seems like an encouraging start!

Of course we don't have enough data.
My previous post was simply pointing out that 1 million unique people tried or used MSFS through Gamepass (As of the day they announced the mark), but, that does not mean 1 million bought it and are still using it.

And of course, I want MSFS to succeed and become the Simulator all of us old timers dreamed of since the Sublogic days.

Edited September 26, 20205 yr by RamonB

At this point in time I can say that I am just plain ticked off at the entire hobby and I have been at Flight Simming from pretty much the beginning.....TRS-80 days. I am sick and tired of the "Sim of the Gods" and all the cr_p that goes with it. I am sick and tired of begging dev's to release new content and hearing about how they are starving to death. I am sick and tired of buying stuff like the Vertx DA-62 that is now been abandoned. If that guy is even still here on earth, then what he did was just plain wrong. For many years, I have looked forward to checking the forums every day to see what was going on in our great Sim World. I find it all sad and disappointing.

I know exactly what You mean.
Right now, After the IMHO disastrous MSFS Alpha I'm taking a break from the new game.
But we can only hope.

I still fire up P3D once or twice a week.

Cheers.

Edited September 26, 20205 yr by RamonB

Just take a look at PMDG forum and please let me know if my English reading comprehension is still good:

1. MSFS is not ready and will not be ready in the near future for complex airliners. 737NG3 has been pushed to 3Q21 or 4Q21.

2. in the meantime PMDG development team will keep working on 777 update and a new project for P3D...and it looks to be 787? 

5 minutes ago, ttbq1 said:

Just take a look at PMDG forum and please let me know if my English reading comprehension is still good:

1. MSFS is not ready and will not be ready in the near future for complex airliners. 737NG3 has been pushed to 3Q21 or 4Q21.

2. in the meantime PMDG development team will keep working on 777 update and a new project for P3D...and it looks to be 787? 

There are many members who are just assuming that complex airliners will be a disaster on MSFS. The new sim is very much a modern sim with a full development on the 64-bit platform. Let us wait and see how it manages the high complexity airliners and then comment.

I am sure PMDG will be noting the flyability in MSFS and working with MS to address any concerns. This is not P3D with its origins in FSX....let's give it a chance.

4 minutes ago, ShezA said:

There are many members who are just assuming that complex airliners will be a disaster on MSFS. The new sim is very much a modern sim with a full development on the 64-bit platform. Let us wait and see how it manages the high complexity airliners and then comment.

There is a lot more to the hobby than PDMG and tube liners.

1 hour ago, RamonB said:

and right now there are only 10K+ online.

still twice the amount of xplane11 (1977) + FSX:SE (2407) online users combined on Steam. I say it is holding its ground pretty good despite a disastrous release.

9 minutes ago, shivers9 said:

There is a lot more to the hobby than PDMG and tube liners.

That too...🙂

The same issues holding back PMDG could be holding back A2A, RealityXP, etc. 

9 minutes ago, SAS443 said:

still twice the amount of xplane11 (1977) + FSX:SE (2407) online users combined on Steam. I say it is holding its ground pretty good despite a disastrous release.

LOL that is mostly people trying to get the thing to download!

2 minutes ago, Chapstick said:

The same issues holding back PMDG could be holding back A2A, RealityXP, etc. 

I am sure you are correct and if they had continued to support the other platforms for the past year then they would have products to sell right now. Their Bad. Now they pay the price for once again being duped by MS.

2 minutes ago, shivers9 said:

I am sure you are correct and if they had continued to support the other platforms for the past year then they would have products to sell right now. Their Bad. Now they pay the price for once again being duped by MS.

Aerosoft said they started a long time ago, but still today they don't have anything either...It is clear aircraft 3PD don't have the platform to develop their planes yet