Just saw the thread on Reddit. With SU4, MSFS 2024 has overtaken MSFS 2020 in the number of players on SteamDB since the release of MSFS 2024.  When MSFS 2024 was released last year in November, for a brief period of time, it had a higher number of players than MSFS 2020, but it wasn't long until MSFS 2020 retook the player base lead.  But since that time, this is the first time that MSFS 2024 has overtaken MSFS 2020 for active players in SteamDB:

 

I don't know how long MSFS 2024 will keep this lead. For all we know, MSFS 2020 may retake the lead again.  But with the PMDG 737 coming out soon for MSFS 2024, I think we could be at an inflection point, and the active player base for MSFS 2024 will keep growing.

Good to see MSFS 2024 is gaining momentum. SU4 was a very good release, and the performance gains have been significant for many people.

 

 

 

I think the 737NG will be it. I would be surprised after that if 20 ever surpasses 24 numbers again

As Jorg said in recent interviews, SU5 onwards in 2026 will bring improvements and new capabilities in addition to fixes, so the momentum is only going to build. And even more so as more and more of the notable aircraft devs start to release 2024 native versions of their aircraft.

Will be also interesting to see the 2025 Navigraph survey results in addition to how these Steam numbers track in the coming weeks/months.

MSFS 2020 was/is a venerable game changer and now it's time to pass the torch on to 2024, finally 😅

Edited December 10, 2025Dec 10 by lwt1971

1 hour ago, micstatic said:

I think the 737NG will be it. I would be surprised after that if 20 ever surpasses 24 numbers again

Honest question: can ONE addon really move the needle like that…?

 

56 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

Honest question: can ONE addon really move the needle like that…?

I’m going to generalise horribly but I feel like the venn diagram between staunch 2020ists and people who fly tube liners overlaps greatly. 
 

I think this specific 737 has a lot of sway being the last of the popular jets that’s not on 2024. Same way that if Fenix wasn’t on 2024 there’d be way more people who stuck around for the older sim.

2 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

Honest question: can ONE addon really move the needle like that…?

If it did I would not be surprised. Just look at Fenix on the MSFS website voted number 3 as most popular aircraft and they are not even available on the MP or XBOX. Only A2A and Black Square beats them out. Native PMDG 737 will boost up 2024 numbers even more.

Edited December 10, 2025Dec 10 by JBDB-MD80

4 hours ago, micstatic said:

I think the 737NG will be it. I would be surprised after that if 20 ever surpasses 24 numbers again

its pains me to agree with you. As my mate said to me "you going to have to move over at some point whether you like it or not, they have you by your knackers"

Edited December 10, 2025Dec 10 by fluffyflops

Even when msfs24 was quite bad when it was released, it was already painful to launch msfs. The only reason for me to keep using msfs was the PMDG 737 but I was even too lazy to do it and I haven't flown the 737 during the last 2 months.

With the SU4, once the PMDG 737 will be available in the new sim, I might say goodbye to msfs for good. Seems we will be a lot of simmers in that boat.

Edited December 10, 2025Dec 10 by sdirand

5 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

Honest question: can ONE addon really move the needle like that…?

I very much doubt it. I am pretty certain that the percentage of users who own or care much about one very expensive and advanced third party add on is very small.

Clealry, MSFS 2020 is cooked. No pun intended.

Yeah I was frustrated by MSFS 2024 in the beginning, but now it is the better sim by every metric, if you have a decent rig and decent internet.  

7 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

Honest question: can ONE addon really move the needle like that…?

it can when it's already at the tipping point

The interesting question is actually, is the Steam Charts in any way transferable to the overall image of 20 vs 24 usage? I doubt so.  In my personal field of view there is a steam usage of roughly 5-10 percent of the users and a 2024 usage of 90% with approx 10% interested in the PMDG 737 at all. The part with the 737 is for sure subjective. But the question about the overall numbers stays. So in the end its just another don't trust a statistic that a) we have result for a sample size but NO clue about the population and b) you did not fake on your own 😉 

Edited December 10, 2025Dec 10 by Torsen

1 minute ago, Torsen said:

The interesting question is actually, is the Steam Charts in any way transferable to the overall image of 20 vs 24 useage? I doubt so.  In my personal field of view there is a steam usage of roughly 5-10 percent of the users and a 2024 usage of 90% with approx 10% interested in the PMDG 737 at all. The part with the 737 is for sure subjective. But the question about the overall numbers stays. So in the end its just another don't trust a statistic that a) we have result for a sample size but NO clue about the population and b) you did not fake on your own 😉 

Can some clever person pull the same  ms24 Vs ms20  data from volanta on a Saturday afternoon??

41 minutes ago, Torsen said:

The interesting question is actually, is the Steam Charts in any way transferable to the overall image of 20 vs 24 usage? I doubt so.  In my personal field of view there is a steam usage of roughly 5-10 percent of the users and a 2024 usage of 90% with approx 10% interested in the PMDG 737 at all. The part with the 737 is for sure subjective. But the question about the overall numbers stays. So in the end its just another don't trust a statistic that a) we have result for a sample size but NO clue about the population and b) you did not fake on your own 😉 

Steam Charts gives us a good idea of the PC market.  The breakdown of MSFS 2020 to MSFS 2024 users on SteamDB was close to the results of the Navigraph survey this year.

Whille the users of MSFS 2020 and 2024 in the Microsoft store on PC don't necesarily have to follow the SteamDB charts, it probably does.

The XBox and PS market is something else, I use SteamDB to get a general picture for the PC market only.

Edited December 10, 2025Dec 10 by abrams_tank