When Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (MSFS 2024) launched on November 19, 2024, many in the flight sim community felt the release was premature, arriving earlier than expected and not fully ready for prime time. The launch was marred by technical hiccups and missing polish, leaving many dedicated simmers disappointed.
Installation woes were the first hurdle: overloaded servers and content delivery network issues had players stuck at “97%” loading screens for hours. Once past the install, users encountered a long list of bugs and broken features. The much-touted new Career Mode, a centerpiece feature of MSFS 2024, also stumbled badly out of the gate. Simmers were excited to fight forest fires, perform search-and-rescue, and more as part of a structured pilot career, but in practice the mode was riddled with game-breaking bugs and odd design choices. Early career missions often became impossible to finish. Such issues routinely led to mission failures and frustration.
The rocky launch translated into a hesitant uptake among the flight sim community in the following months. Navigraph’s survey in early 2025 revealed that MSFS 2024 was, at that time, the primary sim for only about a quarter of simmers, while over half still preferred to stick with the older MSFS 2020. In other words, despite a new generation being available, MSFS 2020 continued to dominate usage several months into the launch of the 2024 edition.
A Year of Fixes and Updates
The good news is that Microsoft and Asobo Studio heard the feedback loud and clear. Over the past year, they have demonstrated a strong commitment to the platform, delivering a series of updates, hotfixes, and content patches to address MSFS 2024’s early shortcomings. The sim that we have now, exactly one year later, is significantly more stable, content-rich, and refined than it was at launch.
Regular “Sim Updates” have been the primary vehicles for improvements. By mid-2025, for example, Sim Update 2 had rolled out with a lengthy list of bug fixes and optimizations. Simmers noticed that many of the most aggravating launch issues were finally squashed. Basic functionalities that were broken on day one were fixed, and various default aircraft systems started behaving properly. Crucially, third-party developers also worked diligently to patch and re-release their add-ons for 2024, which helped bring back the sense of a complete ecosystem over time.
Performance has also improved markedly. Early on, many complained that MSFS 2024 ran inconsistently or struggled to stream scenery smoothly, an area the developers have targeted with each update. With new features like support for NVIDIA and AMD frame-generation technologies introduced, simmers have reported substantial FPS boosts after updates. Optimization under the hood means the sim is gradually becoming more efficient, mitigating the hardware demands that worried many at launch. While it’s still a cutting-edge title that can stress any PC, MSFS 2024 today generally runs better (and on more hardware configurations) than it did a year ago, thanks to these refinements.
Sim Update 4, which is just around the corner, is set to improve things even further.
Ambitious New Features: Career Mode and Content Expansion
Beyond fixes, the past year has been about fulfilling the ambitions that MSFS 2024 launched with. The simulator wasn’t just a visual upgrade: it introduced new gameplay systems and content intended to broaden the experience for its users.
The flagship addition was the aforementioned Career Mode, a structured progression system that lets players start as rookie pilots and work their way through various aviation jobs. You can fight wildfires with water-bomber planes, perform search-and-rescue in helicopters, run cargo and passenger operations, dabble in agricultural spraying, and more – a dramatic shift from the open-ended “sandbox” of MSFS 2020.
The concept energized a lot of simmers hungry for more purpose-driven flying. However, as noted, Career Mode’s launch was rocky. Critical bugs made some missions unwinnable and the overall experience inconsistent. Over the year, Asobo has released numerous fixes specifically for Career Mode, addressing issues like faulty mission triggers and improving stability in these scenarios. They’ve also taken community feedback to heart on design pain points (for example, reducing some of the grind required to unlock later missions and tweaking the repetitive in-mission dialogues).
While not all problems have vanished (a few quirky mission bugs still pop up), and certain features like “Heavy Cargo” missions remained locked as of today, the mode is undeniably more playable and enjoyable now than at launch. Importantly, the community’s continued engagement with Career Mode has proven its worth: despite early frustrations, many simmers kept diving into it, indicating that the feature is compelling enough that players want it to succeed (bugs and all).
In fact, Jorg Neumann, the head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, told me that roughly half of all players were using Career Mode, showing how popular and desired this new mode really is. With continued refinement, most simmers agree it has the potential to be a great addition that adds depth and long-term motivation to the sim.
Aside from Career mode, MSFS 2024’s content offerings have expanded steadily in the past year. Microsoft committed to regular free content updates much as they did for MSFS 2020, and they’ve delivered on that promise. World Updates, those large free expansions that upgrade the terrain, imagery, and points of interest of specific regions, have continued to roll out for the new sim.
The development team has effectively picked up where MSFS 2020 left off, ensuring that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024’s world keeps getting richer. Similarly, the “Local Legends” and “Famous Flyers” series of add-on aircraft (which celebrate historic or unique planes) also carry on. Each of these releases brings even more variety to the default fleet.
The result is that MSFS 2024 now has many more aircraft and activities than it started with, between official additions and the return of third-party offerings. The in-sim Marketplace is buzzing with new content each week, as are many other third-party add-ons stores. All of this shows the continued commitment to growing the platform. The developers are not treating 2024 as a static product but as a living service/platform, much like its predecessor. It’s an encouraging sign for anyone concerned that MSFS 2024 might have been a one-and-done release.
Moreover, Microsoft has been broadening the platform’s reach. MSFS 2024 is about to launch on new hardware, most notably the PlayStation 5 for the first time, which is scheduled for release in December. This will not only expand the player base but also reaffirm that MSFS 2024 is the flight sim moving forward, intended to be supported and enjoyed across platforms. The PS5 version will be identical in features and will continue to be updated with both free World Updates and Sim Updates, just like the PC/Xbox versions.
In other words, even as it turns one year old, MSFS 2024 is still rolling out to new horizons and bringing more users into the fold, all while the core team keeps polishing and enhancing the experience for everyone.
One Year Later
As MSFS 2024 blows out its first candle, it’s clear that this “prematurely born” simulator has grown considerably in its first year of life. The difference between the sim we have now and the version that launched in late 2024 is night and day. Most of those early stability nightmares have been resolved, the performance is better, and the content library is much richer. The community’s tone has noticeably shifted from early skepticism to a more optimistic outlook. Simmers who were once adamant about clinging to MSFS 2020 are gradually warming up to 2024 as it proves itself with each update.
While MSFS 2020 still retains a loyal following (thanks to its four-year head start in content and optimizations), the gap is undoubtedly closing. In fact, it’s expected that MSFS 2024 adoption will accelerate as the remaining ecosystem gaps are filled, since add-on availability has been a primary factor for many holdouts. With most major aircraft and mods now either updated or in the pipeline for MSFS 2024, the incentives to stick with the old sim are shrinking by the day.
Steam’s usage charts for both simulators, although they account for only a small share of the overall player base, show this convergence clearly:
There’s also a bigger confidence that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is here for the long haul. Microsoft and Asobo have continued their transparent communication through weekly development updates, community Q&As, and a clearly outlined roadmap. All signs indicate that 2024 is intended to be a multi-year platform that will evolve just as 2020 did, perhaps even more rapidly given the team’s experience and the community’s feedback.
The first year might have been a bumpy ride, but importantly, the developers did not abandon ship; instead, they doubled down on ironing out issues and delivering promised features. This bodes very well for the future. If the current trajectory holds, MSFS 2024 is on track to not only match the legacy of MSFS 2020 at its peak, but to surpass it with new innovations. It’s quite telling that many who once said “I’ll wait until it’s fixed” are now starting to make the jump, or are planning to as 2024 heads into its second year with a much stronger foundation.
In hindsight, one might say MSFS 2024’s story so far is a testament to the value of patience and continuous improvement. The simulator was indeed “born prematurely” as I’ve read somewhere these days, but thanks to diligent care from its developers and a passionate community that provided critical feedback (sometimes blunt, often constructive), the baby not only survived but is thriving one year on.
