https://navigraph.com/blog/survey2022?fbclid=IwAR2GbnuiyyLIc-Ah5FYJKudIf07vUk0iE2b48zWhO8GbfNPLuJtyb4c7m_E

It looks like thisi is the readers digest version of the survey, there were many more questions on the survey that are not shown here. 

Just now, Bobsk8 said:

It looks like thisi is the readers digest version of the survey, there were many more questions on the survey that are not shown here. 

there is a URL at the TOP with the full results 😉

I had a quick lock at them and have to say they are mostly as expected.

1 minute ago, Bobsk8 said:

It looks like thisi is the readers digest version of the survey, there were many more questions on the survey that are not shown here. 

Did you check out the PDF on that page? https://download.navigraph.com/docs/flightsim-community-survey-by-navigraph-2022-final.pdf

Anyway - Interesting results on sim platform:

Edited December 22, 20223 yr by Zangoose

Just now, Zangoose said:

Did you check out the PDF on that page? https://download.navigraph.com/docs/flightsim-community-survey-by-navigraph-2022-final.pdf

No, missed it. 

Very interesting results, and unsurprising... bodes very well for the MSFS ecosystem and future, and continued 3rd party support/buy-in for the sim. These are numbers for Navigraph users mostly, and obviously doesn't account for *all* the various users MSFS has pulled in ranging from very casual to very serious... but even among the Navigrapher users/survey-takers, MSFS has a commanding lead among users who say that *both* realistic flight dynamics and realistic world rendition are very important to them (55.9% say that MSFS is their most-used/primary sim compared to the next closest which is XP 11.x at 9%, and then counting both most-used and frequently-used MSFS is 66% to the second place XP at 17%).. again unsurprising to me, since with the MSFS platform as it is today, you do get both of those very important aspects of flight simming, and much much more.

Some results of note to me:

3.8.1. Simulator Software Preference
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is still the most popular choice in this year’s survey by the respondents. Respondents stating that they fly this simulator “Most of the time” has increased from 33.1% to 55.9%. This means that every second respondent currently use Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 as their preferred flight simulator software.

3.8.2 Important Flight Simulator Factors
This question is new for this year’s survey. We wanted to know what factors are important to you when choosing the flight simulator you currently fly. We can see that a realistic aerodynamic model is very important for the respondents. Realistic world graphics and the number or types of airplanes available are also important factors for the respondents. Ease of use/interface and number or locations of airports available is less important for most respondents.

3.9.3. VR Simulator Software
Like last year we can see that Microsoft Flight Simulator is increasing and is still used by most. 64.7% of the responders use it compared to last year’s result 60.3%.
X-Plane and DCS continues to be a popular flight simulator software option for VR.

3.15.1. Media Consumption
FSElite.net continues to be a popular source for flightsim or aviation related media together with FlightSim.com and Avsim.com. On a 4th place, we find newcomer MSFSaddons.com.

4.2. Brief Summary
Even though every other respondent did not take the survey last year, most of the results are very similar to the 2021 survey. Where we can, we have provided data from previous years next to the diagrams.
Here is a brief non-exhaustive summary of the results:
● Age ranges from 15-85 years, with a notable peak around 20.
● Most of the respondents come from the US, the UK and Germany.
● The majority have a high-school or bachelor’s degree.
● 27.3% have some sort of pilot license.
     o 8.8% have a PPL.
● 8.5% are currently enrolled in flight school.
     o 25.2% of those who are not enrolled in flight school consider taking lessons in the coming year.
● Most of the respondents were between 5 and 25 years old when they got interested in flight simulation, with a notable peak around 15.
● The most popular aircraft type is Single Engine Piston and Narrow-body Commercial Airliner.
● The main flight simulation purposes are Curiosity/Interest in Aviation and Casual Gaming/Entertainment.
● IFR is a little more popular than VFR, but pilots like to fly casually without rules too.
● Almost every other respondent is satisfied with software for the climb, cruise, planning, descent and approach phase. They are the least happy with software for Taxi and Debriefing/Session review.
● Pilots tend to fly 2-5 times a week, 2-3 hours per session, sometimes longer.
● Respondents typically spend 10-30 minutes on Flight Planning. The same goes for Departure preparation. Post-flight duties/review usually takes about 5 to 20 minutes.
● 6.8% of the respondents own an Xbox Series S or X.
     o 55.7% of the Xbox series X and S users fly simulators on Xbox.
● The median software spending per year is $223, which is the same as last year.
● The median hardware spending per year is $150. In 2021 it was $245, and in 2020 it was $167.
● Aerosoft, Microsoft Flight Simulator in-game Marketplace, OrbxDirect and SimMarket are popular online stores.
● Microsoft FS2020 is the most popular simulation platform.
● Realistic aerodynamic modeling and world graphics are important factors when choosing a flight simulator. Ease of use and number or locations of airports available are less important.
● 26.8% own a VR headset, and 62.3% of them use it for flight simulation.
     o HP Reverb G2 is the most popular VR headset.
● Navigraph Charts is the most used charts product, followed by SkyVector and FlightAware.
● Simlink/Moving Maps by Navigraph is the most popular visual flight tracking product, followed by Volanta by Orbx.
● Simbrief is the most preferred flight planning software/service.
● 82.4% of the respondents use graphics cards from Nvidia. AMD has a share of 8.4%.
     o The Radeon RX 5700 XT is the most popular AMD graphics card
     o The GeForce RTX 3080 is the most popular Nvidia graphics card
● 9% of the respondents utilize an online flight academy, and 17.3% don’t but would like to.
● Areas of weaknesses among the respondents can be found in Power vs. Economy in Cruise, Weight and Balance, Slow Flight, CWS, VNAV, Radio Communications and Descent Planning.
● Every other respondent contributes or wants to contribute to the community in some way. Beta tester continues to be the most common form of contribution.
● 64.5% have flown online in the past 12 months.
     o The most common reason for not doing so is due to not being able to commit to flying in real-time.
     o VATSIM is the most popular online network.
● Avsim.com, FlightSim.com and FSElite.net are popular media outlets.
● YouTube is the most popular social media platform.
● 48.6% of the respondents took the survey last year.
● Most of the respondents understood all the questions in the survey; are excited to see the results; and will take the survey again next year.

4.3.1. Simulation Platform Popularity
One of the most anticipated questions in the survey is “How often do you fly any of the following flight simulator software?”.
Looking at the diagram in 3.8.1. Simulator Software Preference, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is the most popular flight simulator among the survey respondents this year. Compared to last year, more of its users claim to fly the simulator not just “Frequently”, but “Most of the time”. Last year 33.1% said they flew the simulator “Most of the time”. This year it’s 55.9%.
In second place we find Laminar Research X-Plane 11.50+. In third place we find DCS World. In fourth place is the newly released Laminar Research X-Plane 12. Fifth comes Lockheed Martin Prepar3D v5.
Just like last year, we have also grouped the simulators by manufacturer, counting the positive use responses (see diagram below). In the diagram below we see that the FS2020 popularity is on par with last year while both X-Plane and Prepar3D have dropped in popularity. In fact, more survey respondents fly DCS compared to any version of Prepar3D.

Edited December 22, 20223 yr by lwt1971

What surprised me most is that the VR users are more or less the same since last year. Last year 24% owned a VR headset, this year 26%. Thought the difference would be bigger. The percentage of those that use it for flight simulation is still around only 15%, though.

Edited December 22, 20223 yr by Alvega

36 minutes ago, Zangoose said:

Did you check out the PDF on that page? https://download.navigraph.com/docs/flightsim-community-survey-by-navigraph-2022-final.pdf

Anyway - Interesting results on sim platform:

 

From that chart:

Quote

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is still the most popular choice in this year’s survey by the respondents. Respondents stating that they fly this simulator “Most of the time” has increased from 33.1% to 55.9%.

This is what I expected, with the study level airliners arriving in MSFS.  It appears MSFS gained more market share among Navigraph users this year, if you consider the time that Navigraph users spent using MSFS vs other civilian flight simulators.

36 minutes ago, lwt1971 said:

Very interesting results, and unsurprising... bodes very well for the MSFS ecosystem and future, and continued 3rd party support/buy-in for the sim.

Yup.  The thing is, for the other civilian flight simulation competitors to MSFS, their 3rd party developers mainly rely on the PC market to sell their add-ons to.  With MSFS, there is also the X-Box market.

So IMO, for the more inexpensive add-ons, such as scenery add-ons, the 3rd party devs simply make even more money by selling their add-ons in the MSFS marketplace on X-Box.  And when the X-Box issues are resolved in SU12 for PMDG's DC6, PMDG 737, and other high fidelity airliners, even some of the high fidelity airline makers (ie. PMDG) stand to benefit a little from the X-Box market.

If you are a 3rd party developer, it's a no brainer to prioritize MSFS.

Did you notice there's one question of fundamental demographics conspicuously absent from this year's survey: What is your gender?

7 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

Yup.  The thing is, for the other civilian flight simulation competitors to MSFS, their 3rd party developers mainly rely on the PC market to sell their add-ons to.  With MSFS, there is also the X-Box market.

So IMO, for the more inexpensive add-ons, such as scenery add-ons, the 3rd party devs simply make even more money by selling their add-ons in the MSFS marketplace on X-Box.  And when the X-Box issues are resolved in SU12 for PMDG's DC6, PMDG 737, and other high fidelity airliners, even some of the high fidelity airline makers (ie. PMDG) stand to benefit a little from the X-Box market.

If you are a 3rd party developer, it's a no brainer to prioritize MSFS.

Indeed, and the WASM/XBox issues being resolved soon by Asobo will be key to getting aircraft like PMDG even more exposure. Bottom line, amongst a group of non-casual simmers (i.e. Navigraph survey takers), when 55.9% of them say that MSFS is their most-used/primary sim, and it rises to 66% counting the "frequently used" category of people, it's an absolute no-brainer for 3rd party devs to prioritize MSFS.. as we've seen them doing in 2022.
 

Edited December 22, 20223 yr by lwt1971

Incredible to see the old sim versions chugging along! Nice to real data overall to silence speculated controversy!

@David Mills The world has changed big time in that department! 

1 minute ago, lwt1971 said:

Indeed, and the WASM/XBox issues being resolved soon by Asobo will be key to getting aircraft like PMDG even more exposure. Bottom line, amongst a group of non-casual simmers (i.e. Navigraph survey takers), when 55.9% of them say that MSFS is their most-used/primary sim, and it rises to 66% counting the "frequently used" category of people, it's an absolute no-brainer for 3rd party devs to prioritize MSFS.. as we've seen them doing in 2022.
 

Yup, absolutely agreed.  Navigraph users are the real hardcore flightsim enthusiasts.  The overwhelming majority of hardcore flightsim enthusiasts prefer flying MSFS!

32 minutes ago, Alvega said:

What surprised me most is that the VR users are more or less the same since last year. Last year 24% owned a VR headset, this year 26%. Thought the difference would be bigger. The percentage of those that use it for flight simulation is still around only 15%, though.

That is surprising - given the audience is more passionate about flight sims than your average casual user.

IMHO - If you are reading this sentence right now and you haven’t tried VR in a current gen headset (e.g. Quest 2), you owe it to yourself to check it out. It’s not for everyone, but I’d say 75% of people reading this would find it to be an amazing, immersive experience (25% might get motion sick or find it otherwise disorienting). I’ll go as far as saying that flight sims are the ideal applications for VR - x-plane, P3D, DCS, and MSFS are all incredible experiences.

The Quest 2 is $349 - and you can return it if you don’t like it (as long as you buy it from Oculus / Meta or Amazon).

Xplane 11.5 had a substantial share last year and XP12 just released and will surely increase so next year's will be interesting.  This, from Steam just yesterday:

Xplane 12 

MSFS