When you’re hooked, you’re staying. The Marketplace, phew, that’s another story. Only buy the best is my motto and only once knowledgeable simmers give glowing reviews.
I think there are two relevant points here:
- I don’t think MS publishes their concurrent user data for MSFS
- Steam do, or at least it is accessible
I think its also fair to say that, given the often cited mantra of “A pilot is a pilot”, that there likely no discernible difference between your average Steam user, and your average MS Store user. Attempting to claim there are starts getting into the territory that moderators normally dismiss, so let’s not go there. With one distinction left being XBox users not using Steam of course.
So extrapolating that across potentially millions of users, I would estimate that the Steam charts are accurate at the macroscopic level between the different platforms, with the exception of a bolstering cohort of XBox users that you will not see on the Steam charts, but I would suggest that comparing the two platforms for PC users only that it is probably like for like.
That perhaps does not bode well.
Though I have just seen a thread hinting at the possibility of Steam on the XBox.
I didn’t know that was as thing:
https://support.xbox.com/en-GB/help/games-apps/cloud-gaming/cloud-gaming-on-third-party-services
Though XBox users doing that may not contribute to the Steam charts, for all I know.
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Many thanks. Glad to see that the number of MSFS simmers is increasing!
I too am a new simmer who has not gone through msfs 2020 and I am not in the steam statistics either.
Really interesting breakdown — thanks for putting the time into analyzing the Steam Charts data. It’s quite telling how MSFS2020 saw such a sharp early peak and then declined after MSFS2024 launched. Seems like users are still hesitant to make the full switch, possibly due to missing features or performance concerns.
I’ve also noticed that many sim enthusiasts are now focused on recreating the full real-world travel experience — not just flying, but everything from pre-flight planning to simulating airport procedures. A lot of virtual pilots are even referencing real airports like Heathrow to enhance immersion, especially on long-haul routes. It adds a whole new layer to the sim experience.
Will be interesting to revisit these numbers once more updates and third-party tools are released for MSFS2024.
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If you mean launch day, that’s because MS will have paid a lot of influencers on Twitch to play the game, and there will have been massive engagement at that time, then that engagement drops off as they go back to Roblox, Minecraft, or whatever their daily content usually is.
Also it was available from day one on Game Pass, so anyone who signed up for a free trial and downloaded the game are included in Asobo statistics. Most of these players started the game, flew around their house once or twice and never touched the game again.
Before FS2024 was released MSFS had 12k-13k concurrent players on Steam during Europe evening hours. Now it’s 9k-10k combined MSFS and FS2024. I really doubt so many user moved from Steam to MS Store version of the game. Of course Asobo said there are more people playing the MSFS franchise now (across both 2020 and 2024 combined) than ever before, so it must be true.
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