For those actively using both in 2026, has MSFS 2024 improved enough that your choice is now mostly about the aircraft/add-on you want to fly, rather than the core sim itself?
yeah msfs2024 has some nice aircraft which are not in xp12, eg the sourvereign 680. very nice ofc are A2A (which do their own flight model) or blacksquare. but if there is choice, then i prefer xp12 as it has so much advanced. eg FF 777v2 or Toliss A339. lightning, weather, clouds is so much better.
I’ve flown MSFS since the beginning, and it’s always the sim I come back to. I’ve purchased several versions of X-Plane, but MSFS just looks and feels better to me, with a greater balance of graphics and immersion. That said, I think XP12 does aircraft, airport, and environmental lighting better. I wish Asobo would listen to customer feedback and bring those areas up to the same standard… they never touch on it. I guess you can prefer a sim and still want it to improve at the level of another sim.
I use both, but X-Plane 12 is currently my main sim.
For me, the biggest difference is not graphics quality, but realism in motion and overall feel. Taxi, takeoff, flare and landing simply feel more natural and connected in X-Plane, and I also prefer its overall look and atmosphere.
It’s also the small details that add up. Despite MSFS having the more impressive scenery, X-Plane often feels more complete and believable: road traffic looks better, street lighting actually comes from visible street lamps instead of just glowing points, and the default airports are generally on another level, to name a few examples.
I also prefer X-Plane’s user interface. In my opinion, it’s more intuitive and logically structured, the controls setup is much simpler and more flexible, and things like replay and camera views are easier to use.
MSFS still has the more impressive world and some excellent add-ons, so i still use it from time to time. But at the moment, my opinion is that X-Plane is a flight simulator through and through, while msfs is more of a highly simulation focused game.
I know a lot of people will not agree with that statement, but that’s simply my view of the two sims right now.
I agree with a lot of those points, but especially these two. I’m not sure about X-Planes lighting placement, but I know that MSFS decides to place street lights on EVERY paved road, which is not accurate for the majority of roads that aren’t in cities or towns. I would think that this would be an easy fix for them, and there’s already a free add-on that removes the street lights outside of towns and cities that looks so much better than the default.
When I tried the X-Plane demo, I also noticed that default airport ambient sounds were a lot less annoying. MSFS has a loud ambient airport noise that sounds like several distant jets swarming you, even with no planes around. It’s not accurate to how real airports sound and it even plays at certain small airports which completely breaks any immersion for me, which is unfortunate because you can’t mute it without muting every other environment sound, including wind.
same here MSFS 2024 all the way
I might not be normal lol. But I just enjoy their differences.
Of course the aircraft is the main driving reason.
My current bread&butter aircraft to fly is the default Longitude in msfs. Easy nice ifr flight after work. So my “main” sim right now is msfs.
I am hyped with the upcoming Aerobask Falcon 8X release in xplane. That one certainly could take the lead and then my “main” sim will be xplane lol.
But instead of waiting for the release. I just get the Contrail Falcon 50 which of course is very different to a modern jet.
And keeping an eye on the Global 6000 and Praetor 600 release on MSFS.
There are scenarios, for example VFR low altitude, handfly etc. In which to be 100% honest I default directly to MSFS because it is much prettier and good add-ons (commander 114, kodiak, etc) are good enough in feel.
I not even try to make xplane pretty anymore, to me xplane lives in a alternative world where houses are a bit lego-ish and the countryside looks like abstract art lol.
just a heads up: X-Plane is 50% off on Steam right now.
And 50% off all Vskylabs products …which is also a very good offer
oh, thanks, this is useful for me! I need to buy these to test them with FFB-Bridge to get custom stuff working.. appreciate the heads up.
Just picked up X-Plane on sale. Performance is definitely smoother on my PC than MSFS 2024, and the clouds, atmosphere, and default airport lighting look solid. Turbulence handling is noticeably better, too.
That said, as an everyday simmer, I really don’t notice a massive difference in core flight physics between the two. And controversial take maybe, but the ZiboMod doesn’t hold a candle to the PMDG 737-800 for me. Between the overall environment and the dated UI, loading into X-Plane still feels like stepping back into the early 2000s.
I’m sticking with MSFS 2024 as my main sim, but I’ll keep tinkering with X-Plane to see if it grows on me. Anyone else feel the same gap?
The freeware level up 737 (based partly on zibo code) is closer to pmdg aircraft graphics quality. The old style interface does feel old, but the sim boot time of <10 seconds is fantastic for when I don’t have much time and just want to get going quickly.
Looks like you compare only optical things !