Flightsim Community Survey 2019 - Final Results and Report

  • Very interesting read. And, sadly, it confirms what we already know about the market share and user base of AFS2. Can we really blame ORBX for their decision to all but abandon us? Or get annoyed when other companies won't even consider us? If you are a hobbyist, AFS2 is fantastic. If you are a business out there to make a profit, then as we used to sale in sales... "Next."

    This is not a judgement call on the quality of AFS2, it is a market reality. Thank god for the third party hobbyists now expanding the AFS2 world. Now, if we could just clone Sylvain and Larry Lynx about 100 times to get the aircraft manufacturing as buoyant as the scenery production.

    - Kenneth

  • I feel that this survey is a playground of a clique with some members such as xplane, orbx and those frequent participants in the FSexpo. Only less than 18k respondents (and the respondents are majorly their customers). The number of FS players in my country alone is more than that, and I doubt 99% of them didn’t take that survey. Not to mention many in others.

    They list infinite flight, xpmobile but surprisingly didn’t add Aerofly mobile as an option. Clearly Aerofly mobile has great number of users. I don’t know how much did infinite flight and XP fund this survey but I’m afraid this survey is with bias and intend to guide the market and customers to fit the interests of certain developers. These statistics are far from convincing to depict a map of the whole FS market.


    So to IPACS teams and all Aerofly enthusiasts: don’t be bothered by this result, one subjective and limited survey absolutely can’t deny the fact that Aerofly is a great sim and the future is hopeful. But on the other hand I do feel Aerofly need to advertise itself more.

    Edited once, last by W.B. (February 6, 2020 at 4:13 AM).

  • The participants were those that were already familiar with navigraph and certainly already in the community to have heard about this survey. They don't represent the entire market they represent part of the existing customer group. The results for "how long have you been playing flight simulators" shows how few new people participated.

    So there are probably a lot more people that fall into the category "have nothing to do with aviation" and "are not yet visiting a flight school in real life" than the represented figure of 80% or so of those that participated.

    Since the survey had such a select group of people participating the number of users is not really representative for the entire user base.

    More interesting are the results for how much money users are investing per year, how much time they have and what aircraft they choose to fly because of that. I would have liked to see a map where users actually fly on the virtual globe, what their destinations are.

    Regards,

    Jan

  • So there are probably a lot more people that fall into the category "have nothing to do with aviation" and "are not yet visiting a flight school in real life" than the represented figure of 80% or so of those that participated.

    Since the survey had such a select group of people participating the number of users is not really representative for the entire user base.

    Well seen, that's what I also wanted to say on this thread, some figures or percentage announced are sometimes not very representative and I always take this as a hypothesis and not as a conclusion.

    And another example, to come back also one last time concerning the evaluation of ORBX, the 0.28% announced by JV, :thumbdown:that always remains to me through the throat, and I never believed it only one second, concerning the latter, this choice is focused more strictly on a purely personal choice and not on criteria of the sales market which remains unfounded for me.

    Another thing, concerning the graphics shown on the video, concerning MSFS 2020, what does that represent? Nothing other than those who are currently registered in the Insider test Alpha program at Asobo. All that remains hypothetical for the moment.;)

    Best wishes 😉

    Pascal

    AFS2 / FS4 / MSFS / - Intel(R) Core i7 -12800HX 4.80 GHz - DDR5 4800MHz 32 Go - NVIDIA GeForce RTX™ 3070 Ti 8 GB GDDR6X - 2x 2 TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4

  • Only less than 18k respondents (and the respondents are majorly their customers). The number of FS players in my country alone is more than that, and I doubt 99% of them didn’t take that survey. Not to mention many in others.

    Agree.

    For some years back the FSW-team (Dovetail) conducted an extensive survey - and concluded, quote:

    Quote

    Instead we have spent the last two years listening to both existing and would-be simmers alike. We have been intent on discovering what keeps you all simming, and what stops those who would like to get into flight simulation from doing so.

    We have learned that flight simulation appeals to an incredible amount of people, but a lot of them find it too hard to get started with. It is our aim to reclaim and attract those would-be simmers, but in order to do so, we need to present flight simulation in a way that doesn't initially overwhelm them.

    Who else can exploit this great potential other than Aerofly?

  • There is tremendous potential for AFS2 to hit the new simmer market. Maybe that explains the mobile versions. Out of curiosity, IPACS what percentage of Aerofly sales come from desktop versus mobile? Is one platform a clear winner for you over the other?


    have you considered creating an affiliate program where we users can promote the products for a small commission?


    -Kenneth.

  • Is the issue one of exposure? I fly Aerofly more and more. This, admittedly, it’s mostly since I got my Oculus Rift S but, since then, and with more and more time constraints, being able to load the sim and be in the air in less than a minute is a huge bonus for me. I think this would be a plus for a lot of people, yet I get the impression a lot of peopled don’t even know about FS2.

    I try and plug the sim on my site, but not a lot of interest ever seems to be shown. And that’s a shame. I’d consider myself a pretty hard core flight simmer, the ones this sim isn’t apparently aimed at, yet I’m using it more and more. I suspect that’s mostly down to the incredible VR performance. Swishing around the skyscrapers at Meigs etc in the 22 is just incredible. And that’s fine with me. I see FS2 as scratching a specific flight sim itch. If I want systems, global traffic and navigation, I’ll go with X-Plane (for now). If I want a quick zoom around some fab scenery in frankly astonishingly good VR, it’s FS2 for me.

    Just rambling, really, but I guess I’m sort of suggesting maybe Aerofly target their sim at specific audiences? E.g “Come see this fab sim - it loads in a flash and is awesome in VR” :)

    Just one request (repeated, I know). Please somehow add Navigraph Charts support, if possible...

  • Just rambling, really, but I guess I’m sort of suggesting maybe Aerofly target their sim at specific audiences? E.g “Come see this fab sim - it loads in a flash and is awesome in VR”

    Interesting to note on the final report (Section 3.11.1) that VR headset owners represent just 17% of the total of users, but even 5% of those never use VR for flight simulation, making the total of users or VR for flight simulation just a mere 12% of the total. On the same track, VR users for FS prefer Flight Controls like Pedals, Throttle and Joystick instead of VR hands (see 3.11.5).

    If this tells nothing to IPACS, well, that's the market reality, even if you don't want to hear from it.

    Cheers, Ed

  • The participants were those that were already familiar with navigraph and certainly already in the community to have heard about this survey

    FSElite.Net and Flightsim.Com, which I think are one of the most read general FS information websites, together with AVSIM, were promoting the survey back in November 2019, with good anticipation. In fact, any AVSIM reader or participant was able to know about this survey by following the various posts about it

    In my opinion, any simmer enthusiast (not only hard-core) had the opportunity to hear and also to participate in this survey, and that's probably why the number of respondents increased to 17,800 from 15,000 the year before.

    I think it's important to be humble and accept the market readings, otherwise things will, or will continue to go south.

    Cheers, Ed

  • A quick update on getting the word out there about AFS2... My article on Flightsim.com, published on January 21st, has recorded 4,469 views. They may or may not be buying, but they are aware!

    - Kenneth

    At the same time, I wanted to congratulate you on your blog kjksimmer.com made available, for the whole community! Thanks!

    I discovered it the other day, and I find it very successful, and very well presented!

    An essential blog for all SIM fans !!!:thumbup:

    Best wishes 😉

    Pascal

    AFS2 / FS4 / MSFS / - Intel(R) Core i7 -12800HX 4.80 GHz - DDR5 4800MHz 32 Go - NVIDIA GeForce RTX™ 3070 Ti 8 GB GDDR6X - 2x 2 TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4

  • At the same time, I wanted to congratulate you on your blog kjksimmer.com made available, for the whole community! Thanks!

    I discovered it the other day, and I find it very successful, and very well presented!

    An essential blog for all SIM fans !!!:thumbup:

    Thank you for your comments regarding kjksimmer.com, I will be adding more screenshots this weekend. It's a "now and again" project. - Kenneth