On August 18, 2020, Microsoft rebooted its first major game franchise after a long hiatus. Of course, we are talking about Microsoft Flight Simulator, which was and continues to be, developed by Asobo Studio. Today, to celebrate its third anniversary, the development team posted some overall stats on the game since it relaunched.
In a series of X posts, the team showed off some stats in infographic form. Some of the more interesting stats include:
- The Cessna 152 is the most popular aircraft in the game, based on the number of player flights, followed by the Airbus A32ONE0, and the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet.
- Players in the game have flown over 44 billion miles with 711 million flights in the game so far.
- Los Angeles International Airport is the most popular in the game, followed by John F Kennedy International Airport in New York City, and London Heathrow Airport.
There is currently a Three-Year Anniversary Sale in the Microsoft Flight Simulator Marketplace, where over 65 in-game aircraft, along with the game"s Premium Deluxe Upgrade are discounted by 50 percent for the next week.
The game"s development team has a long list of updates it has planned over the next few months. Its roadmap includes the game"s next major update, Sim Update 13, which is currently in beta testing and is scheduled to be released sometime in mid-September.
Of course, the big news is that last June, Asobo Studio and Microsoft officially announced a full and upcoming sequel, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. We also got some more details about the sequel a few weeks later.
The sequel will include, among other things, different kinds of pilot professions, with their own unique missions. It will also have a number of graphical and in-game physics improvements and more. The current game will continue to be supported even after the sequel is released.