Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) update 16.1 will release on March 2, 2026. This update includes stability improvements and a handful of quality of life changes.
While flighting update 16.1 over the past several weeks, we’ve monitored feedback on stability and have confidence that the core issues we intended to fix have been addressed. However, due to fewer Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) flighting participants since the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, telemetry from flighting has become less reliable.
We have prepared a second 16.1 update in the event of unforeseen issues with the release of the intended 16.1 update. This second update will revert the stability improvements introduced in 16.1 and return the update to parity with Sim Update 16 (with only quality of life improvements).
We will only release this second 16.1 update if we determine stability has decreased or receive similar community feedback.
Thank you!
-The Microsoft Flight Simulator Team
RELEASE NOTES Sim Update 16.1 [1.39.12.0]
If you are playing on PC, outdated packages in your community folder may have an unexpected impact on the title’s performance and behavior.
If you suffer from stability issues or long loading times, move your community package(s) to another folder before relaunching the title.
Stability & Performance
- Fixed a crash at boot on NVIDIA hardware in certain conditions.
- Fixed empty Vector Shape corrupting GPU allocations (was causing crashes while flying over the southern island of New Zealand if WU 12 was installed and DirectX 12 was used).
- On Xbox, fixed a crash related to input handling.
SDK
SimConnect
- Fixed random crash when Data Definitions are cleared while existing requests reference it.