''Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024'' is a flight simulation video game developed by

Asobo Studio Asobo Studio SAS is a French video game developer based in Bordeaux and founded in 2002. The studio is most known for developing video game adaptations of several Pixar movies, ''A Plague Tale: Innocence'', and the 2020 and 2024 versions of ''Mi ...

and published by

Xbox Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, spun out from an internal Games Group, fo ...

. A successor to ''

Microsoft Flight Simulator ''Microsoft Flight Simulator'' is a series of Flight simulation video game, flight simulator programs for MS-DOS, Classic Mac OS, and Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was an early product in the Microsoft application portfolio and diff ...

'' (2020), the game was released on November 19, 2024, for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and the

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are the fourth generation of consoles in the Xbox series, succeeding the previous generation's Xbox One. Released on November 10, 2020, the higher-end Xbox Series X and lower-end Xbox Series S are part o ...

. It was announced at the 2023 Xbox Games Showcase on June 11, 2023. It includes a career mode with missions such as agricultural flight and firefighting. It uses Asobo's in-house

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ge ...

. The current latest version of the simulator is Sim Update 2, with the latest beta version being Sim Update 3.

Gameplay

New mission types include

aerial firefighting Aerial firefighting, also known as waterbombing, is the use of aircraft and other aerial resources to Wildfire suppression, combat wildfires. The types of aircraft used include fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. Smokejumpers and rappellers ar ...

, air

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

, helicopter cargo hook transport, air ambulance, cropdusting, mountain rescue,

skydiving Parachuting and skydiving are methods of descending from a high point in an atmosphere to the ground or ocean surface with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or multiple parachutes. For hu ...

commercial aviation Commercial aviation is the part of civil aviation that involves operating aircraft for remuneration or hire, as opposed to private aviation. Definition Commercial aviation is not a rigorously defined category. All commercial air transport and ae ...

, aerial crane construction, outsize cargo transport with the Airbus Beluga, arctic cargo transport with the

Airbus A400M The Airbus A400M AtlasNamed after the Atlas (mythology), Greek mythological figure. is a European four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. It was designed by Airbus Military, now Airbus Defence and Space, as a tactical airlifter with ...

, VIP

air charter Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flight ...

and executive transport, air racing, weather reconnaissance,

experimental aircraft An experimental aircraft is an aircraft intended for testing new aerospace technologies and design concepts. The term ''research aircraft'' or '' testbed aircraft'', by contrast, generally denotes aircraft modified to perform scientific studies, ...

testing, and nap-of-the-earth flight with the A-10 Warthog. New aircraft types include gliders,

airship An airship, dirigible balloon or dirigible is a type of aerostat (lighter-than-air) aircraft that can navigate through the air flying powered aircraft, under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the ...

s, and

hot air balloon A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carri ...

s. New environmental features include wildfires, snow, tornadoes,

aurora An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...

s, animal migration and

herd A herd is a social group of certain animals of the same species, either wild or domestic. The form of collective animal behavior associated with this is called '' herding''. These animals are known as gregarious animals. The term ''herd'' ...

s, live marine and flight tracking, the four

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

s, and better ground traffic reporting. ''Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024'' is a standalone version, but Microsoft stated that "virtually all" addons purchased on ''Flight Simulator''s

online marketplace An online marketplace (or online e-commerce marketplace) is a type of e-commerce website where product or service information is provided by multiple third parties. Online marketplaces are the primary type of multichannel ecommerce and can be a wa ...

for the previous version will work with the new release. Whether external third-party addons will be supported is unclear. The company described the new missions and aircraft as part of aviation career modes. ''2024'' features an EFB (electronic flight bag), improved

physics engine A physics engine is computer software that provides an approximate simulation of certain physical systems, typically classical dynamics, including rigid body dynamics (including collision detection), soft body dynamics, and fluid dynamics. I ...

with greater control for addons'

flight dynamics Flight dynamics in aviation and spacecraft, is the study of the performance, stability, and control of vehicles flight, flying through the air or in outer space. It is concerned with how forces acting on the vehicle determine its velocity and at ...

, improved electrical, pneumatic, fuel, and hydraulic aircraft systems and

avionics Avionics (a portmanteau of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the Electronics, electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, Air navigation, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, and the ...

, and multithreading for better performance.

Development

Asobo Studios serves as the game's lead developer. A team of more than 200 at Asobo mainly worked to update the game's client to accommodate for its new features, while Xbox partnered with more than 30 external partners to work on various aspects of the simulator. The game was released on November 19, 2024, on

and

Reception

''Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024'' received "generally positive" reviews according to review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, with several publications praising the game for its new features, enhanced visuals and landscape streaming features. Criticism was directed at long loading times due to the large influx of players causing server overload. This later resulted in players sitting in virtual queues for long periods of time when attempting to play the game. ''Flight Simulator'' head Jörg Neumann issued an apology in a

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

developer stream that was posted on the day of the game's release, while

CEO Sebastian Wloch said that a database cache was "completely overwhelmed", causing loading issues and missing content. The issues led to the game receiving an "Overwhelmingly Negative" review rating on the

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

platform after its release, with media outlets including ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' suggesting that the game had been review bombed. The following day an update was posted to the official ''Flight Simulator'' support account on X, stating that more server capacity had been added, but there were continued issues accessing the game. In 2025, ''Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024'' won the award for Best Technological Innovation at the 2025 Pégases Awards. It was also nominated in the category for outstanding Visual Excellence.

References

External links

* {{Subject bar, portal1=Video games, portal2=Aviation, portal3=Technology, portal4=Maps 2024 video games Asobo Studio games Flight simulation video games Microsoft Flight Simulator Xbox Series X and Series S games Video games developed in France Video game sequels Windows games Microsoft games