It’s that time of the year again when Navigraph releases the annual flight simulation community survey - and what a year it has been! There are three new flight simulators released: Lockheed Martin Prepar3D version 5 in April, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 in August, and Laminar Research X-Plane 11.50 in September. How have they been received so far? Which flight simulator platform is the most popular? Read on to find the complete report, the survey dataset and some highlights from the results.
We had a fantastic turnout this year. In 2018 we had 15,000 respondents. Last year we had 17,800 respondents, but this year an amazing 23,500 respondents provided us with the data that we now give back to you in the form of this video, and a free survey report of 120 pages which you can download here. This year we are also doing something really special to further amplify the collaborative nature of this survey. We are making all of the data we collected available for free for anyone that wants to do analyses of their own. You will find the dataset here. Just make sure you share any findings with the community under the hashtag #flightsimsurveyanalysis
With 23,500 respondents, 119 questions and 30 partners the FlightSim Community Survey by Navigraph is the biggest and most comprehensive survey of its kind. The primary purpose of the survey is to provide the participating partners with information about the flight simulation community so that they are better able to:
- recruit new pilots to the flight simulation community
- develop products and services in response to pilots’ needs and requests
The secondary purpose of the survey is to provide all members of the flight simulation community with information so that they are better able to:
- find resources to develop their flight simulation interest
- maintain and develop the community
The report, graphs and video are shared openly with the community for everyone’s benefit. We only ask that you credit Navigraph and keep the CC BY-SA 4.0 license of any derivative work.
The partners this year were:
- Aerosoft
- AviTab
- Carenado
- Cruiselevel
- Drzewiecki Design
- Frooglesim
- FSElite
- Flight Sim Labs
- Flight1
- FlightGear
- FlightSim.com
- FlightSimExpo
- Gaya Simulations
- GeoFS
- HeliSimmer.com
- Honeycomb
- Infinite Flight
- IVAO
- JonFly
- Laminar Research
- Lockheed Martin
- Microsoft
- MilViz
- Navigraph
- ORBX
- PMDG
- REX
- SimBrief
- SimFlight
- VATSIM
Who are the respondents?
Flight simulation involves all ages. Just like previous years the age distribution is quite even, ranging from 15 to 80 years, with a noticeable peak at 20. This curious peak is also present in diagrams from previous years. We speculate the interest in flight simulation peaks in this stage of respondents’ lives before job, studies and family takes priority.
Consistent with results from previous years, flight simulation continues to be a male dominated activity.
It may be interesting to compare the gender distribution of this survey to the aviation industry and to the gaming industry. The International Society of Women Airline Pilots states that 5.1% of all pilots are female. Some airlines have as many as 12.7% female pilots, while others have as few as 0.4%.
In the gaming industry, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) reports that 41% of the 4,000 respondents in the 2020 survey Essential Facts About the Video Game Industry were female.
We also see that the majority of respondents come from the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and Australia. An interesting observation is that these countries have been in the top five for the last three years - in this order.
Relation to Aviation
19.3% of the respondents work somewhere in the aviation domain. Yes, about one fifth of the respondents earn their livelihood on or near an airport. 4.7% are airline pilots. Last year, the numbers were slightly higher, but still comparable, 22% and 6%, respectively.
25.8% of the respondents have a pilot license. 9% have a PPL. In last year’s survey 30% of the respondents held a pilot license.
7.8% of the respondents are currently enrolled in flight school, and among the ones that are not already enrolled 25.7% are considering taking real-world flight lessons within the next year.
Simulator Habits
We asked what the respondents use their simulator for. The majority stated Curiosity/Interest in Aviation as the main driver for their flight simulation. 19.6% of the respondents use it for Casual Gaming/Entertainment. 6.1% use it to train towards a pilot license.
In ESA’s survey 80% of respondents say games provide mental stimulation.
What is better than flight simulation? More flight simulation of course! Or at least that’s what some of the respondents seem to think who fire up the simulator several times per week.
Each session tends to be 2-3 hours long, but there is a long tail. Who’s in that tail we wonder? Could it be pilots flying real time transatlantic flights? Or maybe ultra realistic flyers circling a holding pattern burning fuel to land?
We also asked respondents to estimate if they are spending more or less time on flight simulation now because of Covid-19. 45% say they spend an equal amount of time, and 43% say they spend more time. Only 5.2% say they spend less time as a result of Corona.
Interestingly we couldn’t verify an increase in usage with the other diagrams so perhaps it just feels like you are spending more time on flight simulation, but in reality - you are not.
Spending Habits
The median software spending this year is 223 USD. Last year the median was 250 USD, and the year before that 245 USD. Hardware spending is up this year with a median of 167 USD. Last year the hardware spending median was 111 USD, and 200 USD the year before.In the cumulative graph over the last two years here below one can see that respondents have spent more or on hardware this year compared to last year. However, software spending is down this year. In fact, last year there were more of us willing to spend USD 500 or more compared to this year.
Simulator Platform
Now over to the question which most readers are looking forward to seeing the results from - namely simulator platform popularity. Since no less than three flight simulator software were released this year we, too, were excited to compile the results. However, the results were not what we anticipated.
Only 32.9% stated that they had switched to the new Microsoft flight simulator. This was fewer than anticipated given the results from last year’s survey (where 48% stated that they were “Very Likely” to buy the new Microsoft flight simulator). Moreover, 52.1% stated that they hadn’t switched primary flight simulation software at all. Why are we not seeing more movement? One possible explanation may be that respondents have indeed purchased the new flight simulation software, but still have not made it into their primary simulator yet.
In the detailed diagram we see that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 indeed is the most popular simulator platform. Laminar Research X-Plane 11.50 is well represented in second place, and Lockheed Martin Prepar3D comes in third, not with its most recent simulator version, but with version 4.
In the analysis above, the major desktop simulator software are represented by their respective versions. As some respondents may be using multiple versions of the same desktop simulator software, or may be transitioning between such versions, it could be relevant to group these desktop simulators versions into one. In the following graph we have considered all positive use responses (from “Infrequently” to “Most of the time”) for each simulator version by each respondent, and grouped them into the same graph. This graph is more telling of the popularity of the simulator software platform as such. In this analysis we have grouped Laminar Research X-Plane 10, 11 and 11.50; Lockheed Martin Prepar3d v1-5; and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002, 2004/FS9, FSX, FSX Steam. We have not grouped the latest Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 with the previous versions from Microsoft to be able to compare it with the others.
In this diagram we can see that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is reported to be used to some degree (at least “Infrequently”) by 60.4% of the respondents, compared to 50.6% for Laminar Research’s X-Plane, 44.8% for Lockheed Martin’s Prepar3D and 38.1% by the earlier versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Go Deeper
This is as far as we will go in this blog post, but you are welcome to read the full survey report which you can download here. It has many more questions, diagrams, and comments. This year we are also making all of the data we collected available for free for anyone that wants to do analyses of their own. You can find it here. (The data was collected anonymously and no personal identifiable information exists in this dataset.) Please share your findings with the rest of us using the hashtag #flighflightsimsurveyanalysis.Participate
If you would like to discuss the findings we suggest that you begin by posting a comment in forums and social media where this survey has been shared.If you would like to participate to the next survey by becoming a survey partner, we invite you to send suggestions for questions, topics, or themes that we should cover on survey@navigraph.com.