59 minutes ago, RobJC said:

Overall drop: 82.17%

Post of the Year!

Nobody wanted to see the 45 year legacy of PC flight Sim turned into a cloud streaming game on consoles and GamePass!

The management at Msobo needs to be cleaned out, for what they have done to simmers.

Shame on Msobo.

9 minutes ago, RobJC said:

I think a lot of people are waiting for a more stable FS24. There are a lot of add-ons built for FS20, so might be hard for some to give some of those up.

I just watched a video on how to calibrate rudder pedal settings in 2024. I can't believe Asobo thinks this is an improvement over the method they had in 2020. 

It’s dropped because I’ve been too busy to fly.  I get in maybe 2 flights a week now.  (FS2020)

Edited April 14, 20251 yr by Dreamflight767

Purely as a personal view, I do find myself being a bit put off the whole sim experience at the moment. 2024 is sufficiently stunning in so many areas that I am using it almost exclusively, but it is also unbelievably, and in some cases unacceptably, bad in other areas. I'll find an area that is absolutely gorgeous to fly in, and then I'll try somewhere else and find the PG is so bad I can't bear to be there. I just went to check out the native Dortmund to see if I thought it was worth buying the new Aerosoft version and the PG around the airport is so bad I am not going to bother buying the airport and am unlikely to revisit the area at all until the PG gets an update. And don't bother to say I can turn PG off, I don't want to do that.

So 2024 in it's current state is certainly stopping me buying addons, even on the rare occasions when there are reasonable ones to be had.

I still have a full and separate 2020 system on my PC, and it still looks wonderful and has lots of stuff that hasn't been ported to 2024 yet anyway, but I hardly use it because I've gotten used to the vastly increased speed of loading and shutdown in 2024. Given that my sim use doesn't involve setting up and doing single long (or even short) flights, having to exit the sim to reenable addons has become much easier in 2024 and has made 2020 feel cumbersome in that regard.

And I'm certainly not going to buy any addons for 2020 that don't hold out a genuine likelihood of being also available for 2024.

So for me personally, 2024 has been a very mixed bag. I don't care about a lot of the specific issues I see people talking about on here (piloting and "serious" stuff) but for me, problems with the LODs and PG are very serious failures in 2024, and frankly should NOT have been an issue in what is supposed to have been a new, improved version of the sim.

But we are where we are, and I just have to carry on flying where I know or discover things are good and hope they fix the PG before too long. But given that one of the major things about 2024 was supposed to be the visual world, I'm not hopeful of a resolution any time soon. And in the meantime the unsure status of 2024 must be hurting the third party developers a bunch, especially as I suspect it's hitting 2020 sales as well.

So I'm not suprised to see figures like those mentioned here.

15 minutes ago, OverTheEDJ said:

While I think that MS/Asobo may not be meeting internal expectations at this point, MS24 will continue to grow with each update.

 

IMO, MS24 was released about 2 years too early, but I think it will be fine in the long run. With companies like MOZA and Turtle Beach now investing in flight controllers, there are many other indicators that the flight sim community will grow and grow with MS/20/MS24 being the dominant sim of choice.

 

Let's hope so. 

56 minutes ago, Farlis said:

Who cares? 

Er, people who are interested in flight simulation and the prospect of continued support for our hobby down the years?

As usual it will probably turn into another miserable MSFS 2020 vs MSFS 2024 vs XPlane bash.  Like people generally care what the other people use.  But if people weren't so consistently miserable all the time you could look at the stats, realise they have indicated a botched release of 2024, and make of it what you will.  

Interesting stuff, thank you OP.  


In my eyes, MSobo absolutely revitalised the entire hobby with 2020.  What we see today is absolutely astonishing compared with P3D.

Nobody wanted 2024 though.  It caught us by surprise, it was the sim we didn't need.  They really dropped the ball and are now trying to pick up the pieces.  

I really don't care what other individuals use though, but I am interested in the state of our hobby.  

Edited April 14, 20251 yr by Langeveldt

1 hour ago, RobJC said:

The poor launch of FS24 has taken a toll on user stats from Steam. I am sure that MS and Asobo are looking at this data, so hopefully they get their act together. 

Max Players:

November 24 - 24,863  
December 24 - 6,787 (72.7% drop)
January 25 - 5,818 (14.3% drop)
February 25 - 4,763 (18.1% drop)
March 25 - 4,433 (6.9% drop)

Overall drop: 82.17%

During the same period MSFS has seen a drop of 28%. Meanwhile X-Plane 12 has seen an increase of 13% over that period. 

Even though it's sensible to compare stats within Steam, there is simply too much change in too short a time to draw any but the broadest observations. "Conclusions" are way out of consideration.

For E.g., you'd really have to include the fact that XP v12 (still) isn't doing well vs v11, so how valid is it to say that it's utilization is rising if it "can't compete" with its own previous version...?

And as @abrams_tank noted, v2020 has a similar Hockey Stick utilization graph on Steam.

Now, tere's no doubt that v2024 was released too early and has suffered because of it, but it's only months since it released, and it's been substantially improved since then.

All this doom n gloom is waaaay too early.

IoW, wake me when the numbers start to indicate XP approaching user parity. THEN we'll have something to talk about! 😎

Really don't care about "steam" gaming dynamics. I'm more looking forward to 2024 improvement,  3rd part content.

I'm pretty sure some people initially jumped into both sims expecting gaming aspect, which I can agree is pretty poor. Simulation aspect, however, is what appeals to me more and other simmers. Pilots Life 2 is way better that 2024 career for simmers!

As an aside, if you want to see what a true botched release looks like, Cities Skylines, a game that is over a decade old, has more players than Cities Skylines  2.  

1 hour ago, Farlis said:

Who cares? 

Those that love lots of addon companies, i.e. simmers.

How come I can run MSFS 2024 on two different PC'S without a problem? Seems to me you either have a not so good PC or internet connection.

38 minutes ago, andy1252 said:

but for me, problems with the LODs and PG are very serious failures in 2024, and frankly should NOT have been an issue in what is supposed to have been a new, improved version of the sim.

Completely agree.  2024 can stun with the realism of its increased terrain resolution and improved lighting engine.  I can agree some areas have wonderful  PG while others areas are awful.  For me, I really hate the continuing low visibility distance of air traffic.  Other aircraft are not visible until they are on top of you.  Poor LODS really need sorting quickly.

People who complain about 2024 being unstable are correct, but 2024 improvements are just so good I couldn't go back.

55 minutes ago, Keirtt said:

Looking at steam charts over the past year, I'm not seeing any growth of XP12 - very minimal if there is any. With that said, it is clear that 2024 hasn't done great.

Steam charts are always interesting although I don't think the OP is doing anyone any favours by dragging XP12 into this. 

XP12 is growing slowly and steadily but mainly at the expense of XP11. MSFS2024 has done this to 2020 to some extent too.  What Microsoft/Asobo should be worried about is the relatively high percentage of negative Steam reviews for '2024.  This is having an effect on Steam sales.

However, Xbox Game Pass means Microsoft's profit model for MSFS is based on the Marketplace not on sales of the base game. 

A combination of falling 2020 MP sales through last year as people waited on 24's release and then the twin self-inflicted wounds of terrible project management and a terrible release have slashed MP profits.

Here we are, approaching five months in and there's still very little - for both old and new customers alike - worth buying in the marketplace. 

In Redmond, fingers will be drumming on desks in frustration. This is where Jorge might find himself having to walk the plank...

1 hour ago, Greazer said:

Nobody wanted to see the 45 year legacy of PC flight Sim turned into a cloud streaming game on consoles and GamePass!

 

And that legacy was dead, i.e. there was NO flightsim at all being developed after FSX. It's not like they took a perfectly working simulator and turned it into a pile of garbage called MSFS 2020.

You preferred FSX forever over what we got in 2020?

Like what the old lady in When Harry Met Sally said... I want a bit of whatever your having.

1 minute ago, salasnet said:

And that legacy was dead, i.e. there was NO flightsim at all being developed after FSX. It's not like they took a perfectly working simulator and turned it into a pile of garbage called MSFS 2020.

2020 is the best sim I ever had. And I've been simming since Sublogic ATP. Just curious what makes it garbage? LOL