Navigraph’s FlightSim Community Survey 2020 was with over 23 thousand respondents the biggest survey in the flight simulation history yet. Originally, the results were scheduled to go public on December 10th, 2020, however, were in fact published on January 11th, 2021.
As the whole survey is very extensive, we will only mention certain parts of it in this article. Of course, if you would like to read through the complete results, you can download a 121-page document from the Navigraph website addressing most of the survey questions.
The survey is a very important source of information for many flight simulation companies as well as individuals, including FSNews. This year’s survey focused on the simulator usage, COVID-19 effects, virtual reality within flight simulation, the new Microsoft Flight Simulator, and Prepar3D and X-Plane 11 in general. There were 119 questions in the survey.
While last year X-Plane 11 was competing with Prepar3D v4 very closely on the simulator usage leaderboard, this year, Microsoft Flight Simulator is a clear winner, followed by X-Plane 11.50, and Prepar3D v4. It is as well interesting to see how many users are still actively using FSX.
Otherwise, 59.9% of the respondents were new to the survey this year. Almost all respondents were male with an age ranging from 15-85 years. Though, a notable peak was at around 20 years. The most popular aircraft type is Single Engine Piston and Narrow-body Commercial Airliner. Simbrief is the most preferred flight planning service while Jeppesen is the most preferred chart format.
A selection of graphs from the survey can be found below. All can be enlarged by clicking on them.
If you want to really go in-depth, it is highly recommended to go through the 121-page PDF document provided directly by Navigraph. A CSV file that lists every single survey submit can be downloaded as well.
There is also a video summary available on Navigraph’s YouTube channel and can be viewed below:
