Navigraph officially published the data for its 2026 FlightSim Community Survey. The annual study received 42,332 responses, making it the largest yet. This year’s results showed that even with continued community growth, core motivations and demographics remained stable while hardware adoption and platform usage continued to evolve. One key metric remains unchanged- FSElite remains the most popular media outlet.
So, before diving in, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support of FSElite.
Navigraph Survey Design: Bias, Sample Size, and Validity
Of the 42,332 responses, 44% of the respondents completed all of the questions. Of the remaining 18,407 respondents, 2,700 were removed who exhibited two or more signs of insincere intent. This brought the total number of respondents displayed in the graphs down to n=15,600.
Since respondents were not selected randomly and chose to participate voluntarily, there is a potential for bias in the collected data. Navigraph recognized this and cautioned that the results are not definitive conclusions about the flight simulation community as a whole. For this reason, confidence intervals and margins of error were not calculated.
This year, 48.3% of participants were new and had not taken the survey the previous year. Yet, many survey questions showed consistent response patterns year-over-year. According to Navigraph, if significant sampling bias were present, greater variation would be expected. The low variance between yearly samples suggests that results might either be representative of the population or representative of a consistent type of bias.
Navigraph Survey Results: The Bug Bites for Life
The user base remains stable and broad across a wide range of age groups. Following previous years, the largest concentration is among users in their late teens and twenties, with a clear peak around ages 15 to 19. Engagement across ages 30 to 70 remains steady, while participation gradually declines beyond age 75.
Most respondents discovered flight simulation early in life, typically between the ages of 10 and 19. Around 21% hold a pilot license, and approximately 18% of respondents work within aviation. For many of the respondents, flight simulation plays an important role in their lives. Interestingly, conversion to real-world flying declined approximately 2% amongst respondents.
Geographically, the United States remains the leading country amongst respondents. The US saw more responses than the next two countries (Germany and the UK) combined. However, when normalized for population per million people, Norway, Switzerland, Ireland, and the Netherlands lead the pack.
Survey Results: How Do We Fly?
Most users flew between two to five sessions per week, with typical session lengths between two to three hours. When it comes to the type of flying, IFR remained the most common, followed by VFR flying.
New for 2026, Navigraph introduced a question asking pilots what of the following categories drove them to engage with flight simulation:
- Immersion: Realism and authentic experiences.
- Creative: Visual enjoyment and personal expression.
- Mastery: Learning systems and improving skills.
- Achievement: Goals and measurable progress.
- Social: Shared experiences and community interaction.
- Chaos: Unpredictability and pushing limits.
In the results, pilots ranked Immersion the highest, followed by Creative and Mastery.
Navigraph Survey Results: What Do We Fly?
The most significant development from the survey results came on the software side. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is now the most popular platform, with 49.5% of respondents using it. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 comes in close second at 27.8%, while X-Plane 12 holds steady at around 12%.
Preferences for aircraft continue to show diversity across platforms and developers. For Microsoft Flight Simulator, Fenix’s Airbus fleet is the most popular at 42.4%. PMDG’s 737 lineup takes second place with 31.5%. The PMDG 777 lineup is the most popular widebody amongst surveyed users at 23.3%, while the iniBuilds A350 ranks second amongst widebodies at 15.7%.
Depending on your data source, the popularity of the Fenix and PMDG 737 series is roughly proportional to the amount of active aircraft in real life! On the other hand, widebodies are overrepresented in the MSFS sim world relative to their percentage of the global aircraft fleet.
X-Plane 12 followed the same trend. ToLiss Airbus narrowbodies led the pack at 37.2% followed by the freeware B737-800X Zibo Mod at 29.6%. The Flight Factor 777v2 led the widebodies at 17.1%, followed by the ToLiss A330-900 at 11.2%.
When asked about the best product releases of the last year, pilots handed the crown to the iniBuilds A350 at 12.5% of the vote. Second place went to the Fenix BFU at 10.3%, and third place went to WINCTRL’s hardware releases.
The most anticipated product release of the next 12 months, the Fenix A320/321 Neo, garnered more votes than second (BlueBird 757) and third place (WinCtrl hardware) combined.
Navigraph Survey Results: What Do We Use to Fly?
The Navigraph Survey showed a move toward higher hardware performance. A growing number of pilots reported using 64 gigabytes of RAM, while 32 gigabytes remained the most common configuration. NVIDIA’s RTX 4090 remains the most popular GPU at 7.8%, but its market share decreased significantly compared to last year. The 5080 takes second place at 4.6%, followed by the 5070Ti at 4.4%.
Navigraph reported the survey results based on individual GPUs, but if the cards are grouped together, a different picture emerges.
Nvidia’s 70’s series cards across the 4000 and 5000 range represented the largest constituent of users at 14.4%, followed by the 90 series at 12.2%. The 80 series cards took third place at 11.1%.
No information on sim resolution or CPU details was published, both of which factor heavily into the overall performance of the simulator.
As far as operating systems go, Windows remained king with 90.9% of the total share. Mac and Xbox came in almost identically at 2% of the total results.
In terms of peripherals, throttle quadrants took first place, followed by joysticks and rudder pedals. Home cockpits showed an upward trend from 9% to 10% this year.
Hardware spending data year-over-year suggested large purchases are slowing in favor of more incremental, modular upgrades.
Navigraph Survey Results: Can You Land a Jet?
One of the most light-hearted aspects of the survey came in the form of a series of questions asking simmers whether they could land certain aircraft in real life.
Respondents who are certified pilots showed more confidence across nearly all aircraft types. Non-pilots showed a tiny amount more confidence than not in their ability to land an A320. Pilots were most confident in their ability to land smaller types, with the Cessna 172 topping the list among both certified and non-certified pilots.
For more information, click here to view the survey results on the Navigraph website.
