The survey is a collaborative effort with 58 add-on developers and organisations in the flight simulation community. This survey represents the foremost and most comprehensive study of its kind worldwide with 23,736 participants contributing this year.

The most common hardware for flight simulation showed that more than nine out of ten survey respondents use desktop computers (PC, Mac, or Linux).

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the most popular graphics card choice, being utilised by 14.5% of the survey respondents. In 2022, only 1.9% of NVIDIA users had a GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card.

With regard to hardware peripherals, the majority of respondents reported ownership of a throttle quadrant, pedal and joystick with z-axis and hat switch control.

Microsoft Flight Simulator is the most popular platform and is used by over 70% of the respondents. At 13.1%, we find Laminar Research X-Plane, followed by Lockheed Martin Prepar3D at 4.6%.

Microsoft announced earlier this year that a successor is coming to Microsoft Flight Simulator in 2024, and more than 73% of the respondents are likely to purchase the new MSFS 2024.

When it comes to features of the upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator, the results suggest that performance and FPS optimisation is at the top of the wish list.

The best flight simulation product released in 2023 is the PMDG 737, which got the most mentions, followed by the Fenix A320 and A2A Comanche 250. These mentions underscore the prominence of these particular releases within the flight simulation community, reflecting their significant impact and positive reception among enthusiasts.

The full survey is available on Navigraph's website.