How many copies of MSFS get sold?

[Guest Hocking]

Just out of curiosity, how many copies on average does Microsoft sale of their flight simulator? I would especially like to know about how many copies of FSX they have sold.I am mainly just curious about how large the flight simulation community truly is. I think we all assume their are millions of people who fly MSFS, but for all we know there may be only about 30,000 of us or so. I have no idea. I got to thinking about this when I started playing "Steel Beasts Pro" (the tank sim). There community is rather small since the game costs about $125. So, now I am wondering about how large the MSFS community is.

[Paul J 349]

>There community is rather small since the game costs about $125Well. . let's see.. it's about half the price of Steel Beasts Pro, so I guess the MSFS community should be, well. . maybe twice as many? :-lol:-lol:-lol:-lol:-lol:-lol

[RFields5421 1]

The size of the video game market is HUGE !!!!http://www.theesa.com/facts/index.phpYou're not going to find much about individual game sales volume - #'s - because it is closely held marketing information.ESA ranked FS2004 as the #18 Computer Game in number of units sold in 2004 - the last year I can find.I know some people in retails and they see FSX as selling at near the same rate as FS2004 did.The FS2004 User data use survey is a hint of the community composition. A summary may be on this site but the key point was the vast, vast majority of people with FS have never added anything to their FS setup.If the FS community which visits forums and downloads addons is about 30,000, then the FS market must be about 2.5 to 3 million.I know ten people in the company where I work who have FS/ FSX.Two are real pilots - one in our jets, one PPLThe jet pilot downloads stuff and flies a bit (though he's really an X-Plane fan).The real pilot has never downloaded anything.Of the other eight - two have downloaded / purchased an addon form the web/ visited a FS website.Most of the other six have a couple addons - which were purchased over the counter at Fry's. But they don't do web downloads - freeware or purchase.I do more flying hours in FSX in a month than the rest do in a year, combined.

[jordanal 70]

He he he, I work with a bunch of developer geeks and they can't understand why I like FS's so. They tease me about it all the time. Until the one day I actually opened a briefing with Flyhalf's Farewell to FS9 video. Jaws dropped. They had no idea what customization capabilities are built around FS. When I mention "SDK", then they start to understand.I always beleived that those of us who visit or frequent the FS boards are a very very small percentage of the group who have had some version of a Flightsim loaded. Don't forget, these can actually be used as training tools or custom installation that we may not even have imagined. On top of that, many many folks just read these forums without ever creating a user-name and posting thread one.Honestly though, sometimes those sales statistics such as FS9 @ #18 all-time are just hard to beleive. You would think more people would post here when that many copies are sold.

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

We have over 657,000 members in our library. Even if 10% of those are duplicate users (65,700), that is still over 590,000 individual users. We have nearly 40,000 registered members in these forums. That doesn't include those who "lurk" or just read the forums. I suspect that the registered members here represent just 10% of the actual readers. So, some where between 400,000 and 500,000 is where I would estimate the online users of Flight Sim to be. Now, extrapolate that to estimate the global population? I could not even begin to pin that one down. :)

[moss1 11]

Now, take the mind blowing numbers Tom mentioned, X the profit amount that Bill G. gets.........Man someone made a BOAT LOAD of money this year. This doesn't even account for all of the other MS products. I am in the wrong business ;) I was too busy trying to be a rock star when the computer went big, not to mention smoking too much...well you know. Too long ago to remember it all. :)

[Alvega 2,124]

Don't forget the illegal copies. I believe that around 20% of the people that post in these forums and around 50% of those who don't post use illegal copies of FS. So the revenue isn't sometimes what we think it is. Of course these numbers are just a guess, but maybe not far from from the real ones.

[W2DR 1,860]

It might be prudent to think twice before accusing 20% of us here of being pirates. I don't know where you dreamed this up but you may want to clarify it a bit...or just cut-to-the-chase and apologize to the members of this forum.Doug

[Guest abulaafia]

I don't know where the poster gets his assumption from, but as a member of a an IPR Protection and Anti-piracy committee in an Asian country, I can offer your these numbers: We assume that in the whole of Asia for every registered copy of Windows XP there are 23 unregistered copies in use on the marketWindows Vista 62Microsoft Office 182Computer Games ...... Japanese titles 29... American & European titles 273... made by Microsoft 312Irrelevant bits removed, numbers are averages of multiple estimates. These numbers are based on anti-piracy raids, estimates by the European and the American Chambers of Commerce, and the Justice Departments or similar government agencies of Japan, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaysia. Microsoft uses internal numbers which are sometimes considerably higher and based on evaluation of online traffic, registration, customer service hotline contacts etc. It's very difficult to reach absolute figures, but 20% of users is the very very low end of the estimate in any case :)

[Alvega 2,124]

Oh, come on. I'm not accusing anyone, hope abulaafia's post clarifies it a bit for you.

[JSkorna 137]

Reggie know about 10, I know about 10 so figure in the 20-30 range!I think FS04 was double that!!Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/banners/hifi-community-sigbanner.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/

[W2DR 1,860]

It doesn't clarify anything. We all know there is a problem in Asia. But, trying to extrapolate that to the whole of the membership here is rubbish. You've accused 20% of us here of running pirated copies of FSX. Either prove it or retract it. Doug

[RFields5421 1]

FS9 @ #18 all-timeNot #18 all time - #18 of Computer Games in 2004.All the statistics show the top console games outsell computer games by a couple orders of magnitude.

[Paul J 349]

"We all know there's a problem with Asia"Kind of the pot calling the kettle black, isn't it, Doug? You've just suggested that "a known percentage" of Asians are running pirated copies, based upon another posters "unproven" figures. Being in the IT world in North America for the last 27 years - I also think that a probable 20% of Avsim users run pirated software is a fair assumption, and it means nothing. I can't prove it, either, but I'm not retracting it.

[Murmur 3,941]

> It doesn't clarify anything. We all know there is a>problem in Asia. But, trying to extrapolate that to the whole>of the membership here is rubbish. You've accused 20% of us>here of running pirated copies of FSX. Either prove it or>retract it. >>DougI don't think he needs to apologize. His estimate of 20% is probably even too low.These are statistics on piracy in various countries:http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_sof_...are-piracy-rateUS has the lowest piracy rate at 22%, and considering that AVSIM has members from all over the world and not only US, I'd say it's statistically impossible that less than 20% of AVSIM members are pirates. Like it or not.Marco