After 93 days of flight time and over 2,200 hours in the logbook, I’ve finally done it: MSFS 2020 has been uninstalled from my system.

It’s a bittersweet moment. For almost five years, MSFS 2020 has been a major part of my flight sim life as I’ve had an absolute blast watching this platform grow and evolve. Asobo didn’t just create a new sim; they redefined what a modern flight simulator could be.

Whether it was breaking with the landclass paradigm to bring streamed satellite scenery to the entire globe, expanding to Xbox to welcome a new generation of simmers, introducing an intuitive and frictionless Marketplace, or setting a new benchmark for developer-community engagement, MSFS 2020 consistently pushed boundaries. The regular Q&A sessions and the focus on the most wished-for features made us feel genuinely heard and involved. 

While it will never be perfect, MSFS 2020 has, without a doubt, been the most innovative flight simulator of my lifetime.

But now it’s time to look ahead.

MSFS 2024 is stable enough, at least for me, to take over as my main simulator (alongside my regular XP12 and DCS sessions). While the changes might seem incremental on the surface, there are clear and noticeable improvements: terrain rendering is more refined, lighting feels more natural, cloud depiction has more depth and nuance, and the physics system feels subtly tighter. It’s not revolutionary, but it is meaningful and it lays a promising foundation.

Yes, 2024 had a bumpy start. But updates have been frequent, stability is improving, and more add-ons are becoming available every week. The ecosystem is ramping up, and I’m confident we’re heading in the right direction.

To mark this moment, I’m including the very first screenshot I ever took in MSFS (from the early tech alpha days) and my last one from 2020 before uninstalling.

To all the developers, testers, and fellow simmers who made MSFS 2020 what it was: thank you.

Here’s to the skies of tomorrow.

Edited May 10, 20251 yr by GCBraun

Thx for sharing!

I've dropped fs2020 since fs2024 was released, actually long before that....

Main simulator for me alternates between fs 2024 and XP 12.

Great Times indeed for the flight simulation community!!!

Yes, I uninstalled my 2020 just 2 days ago, I hadn’t used it properly in months and when I did it just didn’t feel good anymore.

My hard drive is now feeling a lot lighter too.

Congratulations. I said goodbye last November and any concerns I had vanished within an hour of installing 2024. Despite it's foibles, and there are some, it's still the best sim I've ever used. 

Yeah... I hear you. Been thinking about doing this step, also to get "some" disk space free again. Might do it very soon. Meanwhile I totally unexpectedly tried X Plane for the first time a week ago and what can I say... As someone who loves to fly heavies on long haul... I am absolutely flabbergasted by the beauty of the atmospheric rendering in the latest X-Plane 12 beta. The cloudscapes look simply phenomenal. I am hooked so much that even MSFS2024 gets neglected by me...
 

 

I left 2020 a long time ago, problems with the main thread and Asobo's direction on prioritising features made me try xplane 12 and I didn't look back.

Now with 2024 I am back to installing a Microsoft simulator again, it is far from what I would like but I can enjoy A2A with more than acceptable performance, I now have 2024, xp12 and DCS installed to enjoy.

3 hours ago, GCBraun said:

While it will never be perfect, MSFS 2020 has, without a doubt, been the most innovative flight simulator of my lifetime.

But now it’s time to look ahead.

MSFS 2024 is stable enough, at least for me, to take over as my main simulator (alongside my regular XP12 and DCS sessions). While the changes might seem incremental on the surface, there are clear and noticeable improvements: terrain rendering is more refined, lighting feels more natural, cloud depiction has more depth and nuance, and the physics system feels subtly tighter. It’s not revolutionary, but it is meaningful and it lays a promising foundation.

This is probably the best comparison of the two sims I have read.  So many threads describing 2024 descend into a 2020/2024 shouting match.  What you have said above is exactly how I feel about the two sims, but stated in a way I wish I could, without seeming anti 2020.

 

1 minute ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

This is probably the best comparison of the two sims I have read.  So many threads describing 2024 descend into a 2020/2024 shouting match.  What you have said above is exactly how I feel about the two sims, but stated in a way I wish I could, without seeming anti 2020.

 

Thanks! In fact, the similarity between the two is exactly why I decided to uninstall 2020. If they were that different, I might have kept both as disk space isn’t an issue for me.

Since I already use multiple simulators, removing one helps me spend more time actually flying and less time managing updates.

I forgot to mention it earlier, but for me, the thin client approach in 2024 is also a big plus. It significantly reduces loading and update times, which adds to the overall convenience.

I only use FS2020 if any of my schedules or my mood takes me for a flight in the 737. 
 

Once PMDG bring these over then it will be retirement for my 2020. 
 

But I definitely haven’t looked back since about January. 

I was also heading for an MSFS2020 retirement until FS24 started locking up. No doubt I'll eventually get FS24 back to normal, but I'm reluctant to uninstall FS20 for now.

I don't understand people who think you can't have multiple simulators installed at the same time. STORAGE IS CHEAP! I still have installed XP12, P3Dv5.5, MSFS2020 and 2024. 

I'm very close to moving over to 24.  I've kept it updated since release.  I see things I very much like.  Sometimes I sense the performance is more consistent in 2020.  But I know it's getting better.  Now it's just a case of getting dedicated 24 versions of planes I use most like the Duke, PMDG 737, iFly max.  

Not me,  still a huge MSFS2020 fan and this would go at least until the end of this year so possible at this time the most bad and anoying bugs are blocked out of MSFS2024 !!

cheers 😉

2 hours ago, GCBraun said:

Thanks! In fact, the similarity between the two is exactly why I decided to uninstall 2020. If they were that different, I might have kept both as disk space isn’t an issue for me.

They are definitely the same sim, and 2024 is a fabulous upgrade to the original.  When I recall what I paid to go from P3D v2 to v3, then again from v3 to v4, I was in it for $400 already, sans scenery upgrades.  I am loving the thin client as well.  Recently I had to do some serious spring cleaning (reinstall of Win 11 23H2 and all that that entails), when it came time to reinstall 2024 it was pretty much almost already fully there.  Not quite so for 2020 😉.

So great to hear XP continues evolving and at this point I have no reason to go there as 2024 is already fabulously stunning.  The reinstall of Win 11 and various 3rd party addons (BATC/SLC primarily) MSI AB/RTSS made me realize just how much knowledge one needs to do this well.  The notion of taking on a whole new platform (XP) there would have to be big time improvement in it for me to go there and that's just not there from everything I see.  But yes awesome to have more than one fabulous civil aviation sim!

38 minutes ago, YukonPete said:

I don't understand people who think you can't have multiple simulators installed at the same time. STORAGE IS CHEAP! I still have installed XP12, P3Dv5.5, MSFS2020 and 2024. 

Oh I could, got lotsa storage space, just don't have interest in developing proficiency in more than one sim, well two sims in MSFS' case.  There is a lot of learning time to fully appreciate all that each platform offers.