8 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

There is absolutely no need to insult people who choose to use a different simulator.

I was just being a bit dramatic my intention wasn’t to insult. Calling them flat earthers was more at some of the very single minded views but hey you see that over the fence on here sometimes so each to there own.

1 hour ago, Doering said:

Just a guess about 2002.

It’s more likely that 2002 is easy to confuse with 2020 and check the wrong box. 

49 minutes ago, Noel said:

We've been told MSFS is a 10yr project but I don't know if that implies continued development or just server support.  I certainly have zero interest in pursuing XP12 right now MSFS is absolutely fabulous now w/ exquisite performance on modest hardware and w/ integration of AccuSeason, FSLTL and GSX Pro now I can't imagine much improvement over that, save improving ATC.  

Just to be clear, that initial "10 year" statement has been clarified multiple times by Asobo now, in that they didn't mean literally 10 years and that's it.. but that MS/Asobo are in it for the long haul to keep the sim updated/flourishing.

For latest on this see/hear here: https://youtu.be/Wb7pg9AgpO4?t=133
Jorg: "when I said 10 years I meant to say we're in it for the long run"
Seb: "MSFS will continue when I retire"
 

Edited December 22, 20223 yr by lwt1971

17 minutes ago, Espana Pete said:

The number of options is growing too fast to count, male, female, non-binary, binary, digital, they, their, this, that & the other, oh and a don't know just in case. 

I doubt that's the reasoning; it's easy to simply make M, F, other, and prefer not to answer.

More likely it really just isn't useful info and/or they didn't want people to have an excuse to be rude when discussing results.

Impressive numbers, IMO, for MSFS. I mean the jump of people using it as main sim comparing 2021 vs 2022. 

Wow, the survey said only 3% of flight simmers use hot towels in their flight sim setup !

25 minutes ago, ca_metal said:

Impressive numbers, IMO, for MSFS. I mean the jump of people using it as main sim comparing 2021 vs 2022. 

To be honest, it was totally expected, with the study level airliners that came in the spring.  Sim Update 11, with the gilders, helicopters, 20 KM CFD, and free iniBuilds A310 (plus other free payware quality aircraft), just sweetened the pot further.

I saw the switch myself on Twitch.  Prior to this spring, top streamers like Chewwy and LondonController, were still using XP and P3D quite frequently, because they didn't like the available airliners in MSFS. That all changed in the spring with the release of several study level airliners.  Since then, top streamers like Chewwy and LondonController on Twitch mainly stream MSFS now. 

Another example is r/flightsim on Reddit. Before the spring, MSFS posts maybe made up 40% to 50% of the posts. After the spring and the study level airliners entered MSFS, MSFS posts make up maybe 70% to 80% of the posts.

The Navigraph survey is just confirmation of what we expected.  There are still more high fidelity airliners that will release on MSFS.  It's possible that MSFS strengthens even further as more high fidelity airliners are released in MSFS, and when the default avionics are made even better by Working Title.

Edited December 22, 20223 yr by abrams_tank

3 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

To be honest, it was totally expected, with the study level airliners that came in the spring.  Sim Update 11, with the gilders, helicopters, 20 KM CFD, and free iniBuilds A310 (plus other free payware quality aircraft), just sweetened the pot further.

I saw the switch myself on Twitch.  Prior to this spring, top streamers like Chewwy and LondonController, were still using XP and P3D quite frequently, because they didn't like the available airliners in MSFS. That all changed in the spring with the release of several study level airliners.  Since then, top streamers like Chewwy and LondonController on Twitch mainly stream MSFS now. 

Another example is r/flightsim on Reddit. Before the spring, MSFS posts maybe made up 40% to 50% of the posts. After the spring and the study level airliners entered MSFS, MSFS posts make up maybe 70% to 80% of the posts.

The Navigraph survey is just confirmation of what we expected.  There are still more high fidelity airliners that will release on MSFS.  It's possible that MSFS strengthens even further as more high fidelity airliners are released in MSFS.

I wasn’t expecting it would almost double the %. 😂

Remember those are hardcore users. People that invested a lot on their main sims and are a little reluctant to move.

Edited December 22, 20223 yr by ca_metal

How can one fly without hot towels?

 

 

52 minutes ago, Mike S KPDX said:

$1,700 US spent on sim software addons in the last 12 month?? - 1%??

I am not even sure there is that much available to purchase?

Errrrr.....in between the marketplace, and individual addon sites (or steam) one could easily spent that kinda money.  Have you looked at all the scenery addons?

I'm guessing I've spent 500 bucks this year on addons.  Don't ask me about hardware lol.

3 hours ago, David Mills said:

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

That subject is getting too confusing for many, unfortunately...😌

I think it's funny that the density of flight simmers is highest in Norway, New Zealand and Switzerland which are all mountainous and kind of similar, and then the Netherlands which is completely flat in 4th place. 

Just to get back to the survey itself, it might be useful to read the material on sampling bias and validity on page 80. As someone who has done some survey work in what passes for real life, this analysis may not have gone far enough in order to characterize the sampled population. For example, around 70% of respondents were users of Navigraph charts or FMS data products, something that cannot be true of the larger sim flight community.

Also, 2/3rds of the respondents report having flown online in the last year with maybe 2/3rds of those reporting that they fly on VATSIM. So for the sake of discussion let's say that around half of the respondents have flown on VATSIM in the last year, a ratio that can be scaled against the number of active VATSIM users which is around 100,000 or so. If the respondent population were representative of the entire flight sim community, that would fix that group's size around 200,000, but that's likely to be too low by a factor of ten since MSFS alone recently reported its 10 millionth user. So the respondents are way more likely than the average flight simmer to be active online.

So whatever conclusions one might want to draw from this survey, it would be very hard to extend them to the flight sim community as a whole. Let's not stop the speculation, because it's all good fun, and I will add to it by suggesting that we should be very happy to see that seemingly anomalous spike in the age distribution that has been pointed out by @crimplene  I'm going to speculate that this is very good news indeed for flight simulation because it appears that new members are joining our community at a young age. I'll further speculate that they have been recruited into the hobby by the accessibility of the extraordinary MSFS system.

Have a great holiday everyone.

 

@jrw4 I was wondering if someone would address the shortfalls of survey questionnaire designs, population sampling, bias and related stats. Points well made! Surveys of this nature are, however, a great starting point to see the big picture and provide excellent insight into trends with continued follow ups. 

2 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

Yeah, I think P3D is done, stick a fork in it. 😉

And I am astonished by FSL for exemple, who decided to prioritize P3D over MSFS for their next products.

I can understand that a larger portion "in percent" would buy expensive addons for P3D over MSFS, but still, they are closing themselves to a massive market, the future of flight sim and leave a big gap that will be filled by other third party developer.