MSFS 2024: The Most Ambitious Simulation Game Ever?
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 comes with a bold marketing claim, much like what you’d expect from any major publisher’s flagship game: it’s touted as “the most ambitious sim ever undertaken.” Phrases like that are common in the gaming industry, and I usually tune them out. But this time… it might actually hold some truth.
Let’s take a closer look at that statement. They aren’t just claiming it’s the most ambitious flight simulator ever; they’re positioning it as the most ambitious simulation game across all genres, whether that’s flying, trucking, city building, or farming. It’s a lofty goal. After spending a day with the game, I can say I’m convinced.
One key thing that stood out right away: Flight Simulator 2024 has a lot more to offer than I initially anticipated. Given its marketing so far, I expected only incremental upgrades with a heavy emphasis on the new career options. On the surface, that made sense, Flight Sim 2020 was already a polished simulator, especially after updates. It also drew in a new wave of players who wanted more structured content beyond just flying. Flight Simulator 2024 not only addresses that but goes beyond.
The explanation for this broader scope boils down to the game’s growing audience. The Microsoft Flight Simulator series has now reached over 45 million players, known as simmers to the developers. While this spans the franchise’s 42-year history, 15 million of those players came from Flight Sim 2020. With the game available on PC, Xbox, and via streaming, the 2020 edition broke through previous barriers for simulation games.
“We didn’t just magically create 10 million new simmers,” explains Jörg Neumann, head of Flight Simulator at Xbox and Microsoft. Instead, the 2020 game attracted an entirely new group of players. Neumann estimates that the player base can be split into three main categories.
First, there’s the core simmers, those deeply invested in aviation simulation, who remain the “absolute heart” of the development team’s focus. Then, there’s another five million players who are “typical gamers,” drawn to the franchise for its stunning visuals and novelty. Finally, there are the “digital tourists”, players captivated by the game’s realistic recreation of the planet, where they can fly over strikingly accurate representations of important locations, built from satellite imagery.
