Hi. I was watching Fabio's stream today, and the conversation came up about how will PMDG planes sell on X-Box versus PC (assuming the issue that caused the DC-6 to be yanked from X-Box marketplace is resolved in the future).  Fabio made an interesting observation that if there are that many more X-Box users of MSFS than PC users of MSFS, then because of the sheer X-Box user numbers, PMDG may sell more planes on the X-Box than PC, even though PC has the more "hard core" flight simmers (ie. I would say many of the people that frequent Avsim are the more "hard core" flight simmers).  You can watch the conversation brought up by Fabio here. Some person in Fabio's chat even claimed there were 5 times as many X-Box users as PC users of MSFS, but did not provide a source for that claim.  Anyways, Fabio is a dedicated MSFS streamer, and has a relationship with the MSFS team (ie. the official MSFS channel on Twitch has asked Fabio to come multiple times before as a guest).  Fabio also has relationship to Randazzo at PMDG (Randazzo said he has known Fabio for many years, and just recently, Randazzo came on Fabio's stream for an interview).  

But at the moment, I can't wrap my head around the fact that there are more X-Box users of MSFS than PC users.  Is there a source for this?  I am very curious and would like to see a more concrete source for this.  Did X-Box sales of MSFS outsell PC sales of MSFS?

I ask this because MSFS was released for PC first. Like many games out there, the first time a game is released is when it garners the most sales.  And the requirements for MSFS on PC was actually quite low requirements for a modern game, at the release of MSFS last year.  In addition, MSFS has had one whole year more to sell copies for PC, than X-Box.  I also frequent the official MSFS forums at https://forums.flightsimulator.com/ frequently and it's obvious that the PC users of MSFS dominate the conversation of most topics there (however, maybe because PC users are the more "hard core" flight simmers, they may also be the most vocal, so just because PC users dominate the https://forums.flightsimulator.com/ forum topics, doesn't mean there are more PC users of MSFS than X-Box users).

Are there really more X-Box users of MSFS than PC users? Anybody have a source?

PS. Let's not start a "gamer" vs "simmer" war in this thread please, this thread is not intended for that.

Edit: For the purposes of this thread, an MSFS "active" user on X-Box would play MSFS for at least one hour a month.  An X-Box user that can't even play MSFS for one hour per month, is extremely unlikely to purchase high fidelity planes from PMDG on X-Box.  The same goes for an "active" PC user of MSFS.

 

 

Edited December 23, 20214 yr by abrams_tank

Can't see why this wouldn't be the case. I suspect the vast bulk of MSFS users have access to it via  GamePass and I've always understood that's way more popular on console than PC.

I think...... The source is his grand mother coocking the Christmast lunch 😁

Edited December 23, 20214 yr by davide73mi

It`s no secret that MS and Phill Spencer see game pass as the future and that`s why he funded some old games for the Catalogue MSFS being one of them. more users will have access to MSFS on console then PC, Last month MS for the first time gave access to XBOX users for streaming this is around 20 million and will grow when the Series X becomes more available.   

Xbox Cloud Gaming now available on Xbox One and Series X/S with Game Pass Ultimate • Eurogamer.net

Windows 10 Xbox app gets Game Pass cloud streaming today • Eurogamer.net

Edited December 23, 20214 yr by G-RFRY

A quick search shows that there are more then 6 million xbox in circulation so I wouldnt be surprised if there are a lot more Xbox gamers then PC gamers on MSFS.  In my personal circkel I'm one of the very few that has a PC, the rest are on phone, tablets or lap tops.

19 minutes ago, Matchstick said:

Can't see why this wouldn't be the case. I suspect the vast bulk of MSFS users have access to it via  GamePass and I've always understood that's way more popular on console than PC.

It would be interesting to see how many hours per month X-Box users with Gamepass spend on MSFS.  I guess I should edit my post to qualify that an "active" MSFS user on X-Box spends at least an hour a month playing MSFS (ditto for an "active" PC user of MSFS).

Because if an X-Box user just has MSFS on their X-Box but they don't even spend 1 hour per month playing MSFS, I highly doubt this type of user is going to fork over $50 USD for a DC6 (or whatever the price of the DC6 is on X-Box).

Edited December 23, 20214 yr by abrams_tank

Given the cost of a new PC, flight controls, monitor, key board/mouse. The PC market must be very small.

Buy an Xbox plug into a TV=job done. The amount of Xbox users will proberly stay very hight but I would think its users change all the time, unlike the die hard more "sim" market PC users. Were they will be the ones useing the sim for years, not till a "new" game comes out.

19 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

It would be interesting to see how many hours per month X-Box users with Gamepass spend on MSFS.  I guess I should edit my post to qualify that an "active" MSFS user on X-Box spends at least an hour a month playing MSFS (ditto for an "active" PC user of MSFS).

Because if an X-Box user just has MSFS on their X-Box but they don't even spend 1 hour per month playing MSFS, I highly doubt this type of user is going to fork over $50 USD for a DC6 (or whatever the price of the DC6 is on X-Box).

I think he may be counting the X box folks that got the game via Gamepass and fly it a few times, and then move on to something else. 

Even HoneyComb are reportedly working on an XBOX compatible version of there flight control hardware. And MS are trying to get TV manufactures to include Game Pass app included just like Netflix in the software.     

5 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

I think he may be counting the X box folks that got the game via Gamepass and fly it a few times, and then move on to something else. 

Yes, I edited my post to qualify what an "active" user of MSFS is.  That's a user that plays MSFS at least one hour a month.

I am very, very skeptical that there are more "active" users of MSFS on X-Box than PC.  I would think there are way more "active" users of MSFS on PC, especially since it's the more serious flight simmers that keep on playing MSFS as time passes on.

3 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

Yes, I edited my post to qualify what an "active" user of MSFS is.  That's a user that plays MSFS at least one hour a month.

I am very, very skeptical that there are more "active" users of MSFS on X-Box than PC.  I would think there are way more "active" users of MSFS on PC, especially since it's the more serious flight simmers that keep on playing MSFS as time passes on.

Where I work now, there are three people that have X box units at home. They are in their 20's and 30's. One tried MSFS twice,  and the other two tried it once, and neither of them has touched it since. They would rather play auto racing games and things of the nature. 

Edited December 23, 20214 yr by Bobsk8

1 minute ago, Bobsk8 said:

Where I work now, there are three people that have X box units at home. They are in their 20's and 30's. One tried MSFS twice,  and the other two tried it once, and neither of them has touched it since. They would rather play auto racing games and things of the nature. 

Makes sense to me.  It's been some 5 months since MSFS was released on X-Box.  I'm pretty sure most initial MSFS players on X-Box have moved on now.  I'm sure some initial PC users of MSFS have also moved on, but for sure, there are more "hardcore flight simmers" on PC than X-Box so a lot of the leftover player base for MSFS are still these hardcore flight simmers.

1 minute ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

I don't follow or know who Fabio is, but his early statement that there are more XBOX sales than PCs is not accurate (in terms of hardware).  The sales number vary but consistently show the PS5 ahead (global numbers):

XBOX series X/S sales 6-8 Million

PS5 sales at 11-13 Million

PC sales at 84 Million

My understanding of an early interview with Jorge is that Microsoft also wants to get MSFS out on PS5 (for obvious reasons).  MSFS sales numbers are reported at about 2.3 Million users (seems to have now leveled out), games pass is about 20-23 Million users.  1 Million of those 2.3 Million were at a minimum PC sales because we know that number before the XBOX launch.

XBOX X/S $300-$500

Average gaming PC cost is $1200-$1500

The economics of XBOX is 33% cheaper than PC, but the PC has 10X more unit sales.  I was unable to find any specific XBOX user sales of MSFS vs. PC user sales of MSFS.  If I were to hazard a guess I'd say it's probably close to 50/50 in XBOX sales vs. PC sales.  If MS make good on delivery to PS5 than I think it would swing in favor of consoles and is the likely focus going forward.

Cheers, Rob.

Wondering what will happen if they try and modify MSFS so it will work on PS5  That should be interesting. 

4 minutes ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

MSFS sales numbers are reported at about 2.3 Million users (seems to have now leveled out), games pass is about 20-23 Million users. 

Hi, do you have a source for the 2.3 million users for MSFS?

This article here from December of 2020 says MSFS had 2 million users: https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-flight-simulator-2-million-players.  But that was from December of 2020, when MSFS was only available for PC.

Would be nice to see where your source for the 2.3 million users of MSFS is from, and the date for that source.  Thanks.

40 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

there are more "hardcore flight simmers" on PC than X-Box

My gut feeling tells me the same. I’m more curious about the „not so hardcore but still more than casual“ Xbox simmers; the ones that may buy an addon from time to time and thus contribute to the financial success of the sim. The results of this year‘s Navigraph survey will probably shed some light on this.

Edited December 23, 20214 yr by Shack95