We can probably guess the size of the market for PC users, based on the SteamDB numbers.  Now to preface this, the market was the biggest in the first 6 months of MSFS 2020 or so, because when MSFS 2020 was released, it brought a lot of users back to flight simulation.  There are real life pilots (or former real life pilots) that streamed MSFS 2020 for the first few months on Twitch that I followed, that eventually got bored of flight simulation again (despite being a real life pilot or a former real life pilot because they didn't keep current with their PPL), and stopped streaming MSFS 2020.  These streamers would have bought various add-ons when they were interested in MSFS 2020, but probably stopped buying add-ons when they stopped using/streaming MSFS 2020.

Anyways, the SteamDB numbers are open to the public. If we go to May of 2022, when the Fenix A320, PMDG 737, Just Flight BAe 146, and Leonardo Maddog were released, and also when Randazzo claimed record sales for the PMDG 737, the number of MSFS 2020 users on SteamDB was 10,416.  And now, the MSFS numbers are split between MSFS 2020 and MSFS 20204.  The numbers for May are not complete, so we can look at the April, 2025 numbers.  For MSFS 2020 in April of 2025, it was 7,707 users.  For MSFS 2024, the last datapoint for April is April 28, and it shows 3,776.  Take 7,707 + 3,776, and you get 11,483 users.

The SteamDB numbers for MSFS 2020: https://steamdb.info/app/1250410/charts/#max
The SteamDB numbers for MSFS 2024: https://steamdb.info/app/2537590/charts/#max

If you ask me, the market for PC users is about the same since May of 2022, to April of 2025.  Now this excludes the XBox market, because we don't have numbers for that.  And of course, the SteamDB numbers just give us an rough picture, because it excludes people who bought MSFS in the Microsoft Store, but I think it would show any trends if the market is significantly shrinking, or if it is significantly growing.

Having said that, the SteamDB numbers did gives us a good insight into the MSFS 2020 vs MSFS 2024 split, before the Navigraph survey came out.  More or less, the SteamDB numbers were consistent with the Navigraph percentages of MSFS 2020 vs MSFS 2024 users, so although it gives us a rough picture of the market, I don't think it's wildly inaccurate either.

Edited May 30, 20251 yr by abrams_tank

18 hours ago, Amon1973 said:

We could argue that we have zero evidence that the flight sim market has reduced in size. If anything there is more proof that's it grown over the last couple of years.

What proof?, where is this proof?

I honestly have no idea of the trends, I suspect the user base has gone down compared to 2020 first year but really dont know.

Whatever, flight sim is a minnow in the pond of Gaming always has been always will be

 

 

There’s still no update on the Q400, even though it’s been more than five years since MSFS was released. At this point, it really feels like a dead project, especially after so many repeated promises that never materialized.

43 minutes ago, LineDX said:

There’s still no update on the Q400, even though it’s been more than five years since MSFS was released. At this point, it really feels like a dead project, especially after so many repeated promises that never materialized.

It's not dead, just not here yet...

1 hour ago, LineDX said:

There’s still no update on the Q400, even though it’s been more than five years since MSFS was released. At this point, it really feels like a dead project, especially after so many repeated promises that never materialized.

I understand your disappointment that it's taking so long, but I don't think Majestic ever made any promises.

I've reviewed some of their announcements, and I don't see any promises about timelines - in fact, they repeatedly state that they can't provide timelines. For example:

August 2020

"That being said, we can not and will not provide a time frame as to how soon the Q300 or Q400 will enter the MSFS 2020 arena"

May 2024

"A timeline on when this project will be close to completion will not be discussed at this time as we will not be, nor never have falsified hope on release dates. We are hoping that we can near completion sooner than planned, but we do not foresee being close to completion till sometime in 2025 "if everything goes as planned"."

May 2025

No timeline given

June 2025

No timeline given

 

Edited December 7, 2025Dec 7 by martinboehme

25 minutes ago, kevinfirth said:

It's not dead, just not here yet...

Well! That's what they have been telling people it's WIP project since 2020 but in reality it sounds more like a RIP project. 

 

Edited December 7, 2025Dec 7 by LineDX

19 minutes ago, LineDX said:

Well! That's what they have been telling people it's WIP project since 2020 but in reality it sounds more like a RIP project. 

 

Believe what you wish... Knowledge trumps assumptions 

Oh gosh. They are in fact working on it. Stop this speculation of doom and gloom. 

Isn’t it more of an assumption that they’re still working on it, since they haven’t shared anything beyond a few basic renders? Agreed! knowledge trumps assumptions. But in this case WIP sounds more of an assumption than knowledge. 

30 minutes ago, LineDX said:

Isn’t it more of an assumption that they’re still working on it, since they haven’t shared anything beyond a few basic renders? Agreed! knowledge trumps assumptions. But in this case WIP sounds more of an assumption than knowledge. 

Maybe offer what ever development work you can do. I might be wrong but thought they had a full time job to deal with besides making a plane. Certainly not a dead product.

Edited December 7, 2025Dec 7 by carlanthony24

26 minutes ago, LineDX said:

Isn’t it more of an assumption that they’re still working on it, since they haven’t shared anything beyond a few basic renders? Agreed! knowledge trumps assumptions. But in this case WIP sounds more of an assumption than knowledge. 

Read into it what you will.  How can you confidently state any awareness of what I might know or not know?  And if you look around enough, there's actually more information out there than 'a few basic renders.'  do some background research into the Majestic team members, who's around, who's not, what projects they've been working on, their family situations etc...  lots of open source stuff you can glean from if you care to spend a little time looking into it and putting the pieces together.

3 hours ago, kevinfirth said:

Read into it what you will.  How can you confidently state any awareness of what I might know or not know?  And if you look around enough, there's actually more information out there than 'a few basic renders.'  do some background research into the Majestic team members, who's around, who's not, what projects they've been working on, their family situations etc...  lots of open source stuff you can glean from if you care to spend a little time looking into it and putting the pieces together.

I think you're reading far too much into this. Suggesting that I should “look into people’s family situations” or piece together scattered hints from the internet isn’t evidence it’s speculation.

If Majestic software actually had meaningful progress to show, they could share it themselves. After five years of silence, a few scattered, basic renders, posts or background guesses don’t suddenly become “knowledge.”

You’re free to believe the project is active, but don’t imply others lack awareness just because we’re not building theories out of fragments. Until the developers provide concrete updates, calling it a dead or stalled project is completely reasonable. 

 

3 hours ago, carlanthony24 said:

Maybe offer what ever development work you can do. I might be wrong but thought they had a full time job to deal with besides making a plane. Certainly not a dead product.

The team having a full-time job isn’t an excuse for five years of essentially no to very little communication. Plenty of small teams in this hobby release regular updates, even if progress is slow. silence isn’t development  it’s just silence.

And no, it’s not on the community to “offer development work” to keep a product alive. It’s on the developer to communicate whether a project is progressing or stalled.

You can call it “not dead” if you want, but with zero meaningful updates in half a decade, that’s a pretty optimistic interpretation. At some point, it’s fair for people to question the status of the project.

Edited December 7, 2025Dec 7 by LineDX

1 hour ago, LineDX said:

The team having a full-time job isn’t an excuse for five years of essentially no to very little communication. Plenty of small teams in this hobby release regular updates, even if progress is slow. silence isn’t development  it’s just silence.

And no, it’s not on the community to “offer development work” to keep a product alive. It’s on the developer to communicate whether a project is progressing or stalled.

You can call it “not dead” if you want, but with zero meaningful updates in half a decade, that’s a pretty optimistic interpretation. At some point, it’s fair for people to question the status of the project.

Let me guess you also said the same about FSLabs when we didn't hear anything from them around the same amount of time at least we get updates from Majestic. "zero meaningful updates." Updates that describe troubles they have had with MSFS. Screenshots showing what they have worked on. Proves it is not dead. 

You are the very reason why developers are choosing to not give updates till they expect to release the product or an update.

9 hours ago, LineDX said:

There’s still no update on the Q400, even though it’s been more than five years since MSFS was released. At this point, it really feels like a dead project, especially after so many repeated promises that never materialized.

Schrödinger's Q400. Is it alive? Is it dead? We won't ever know until Majestic opens the box.