The Results from the Flight Sim Awards 2026

The Flight Sim Awards 2026 have officially wrapped, celebrating the very best our community has to offer across 22 categories presented during both the pre-show and the live event.

This year’s live show took place during the Captain’s Dinner in Lelystad, setting the stage perfectly ahead of FSWeekend 2026. The evening followed an engaging pre-show hosted by TwoToneMurphy, who expertly guided viewers through each category before revealing the winners.

Taking to the stage for the main event, KatiePilot and NickFlightX hosted the awards evening, bringing energy, personality, and well-deserved recognition to the developers, creators, and teams who continue to shape the flight simulation space.

At the heart of the awards is the community itself. Thousands of you cast your votes, helping decide this year’s winners. From the initial nominations through to the final results, the entire process was built to be as community-driven as possible, ensuring the awards truly reflect the voices of simmers worldwide.

Without further ado, here are all of our winners, runners-ups and nominees for each category.

Best Freeware Tool or Utility

1. WINNER: ResetXPDR AutoFPS – 26%
   
2. Universal Announcer – 8%
   
3. Freeware TFX Effects – 3%
   
4. MSFS Passenger Map – 3%
   
5. MSFS Glass – 3%
   

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Best Freeware Aircraft – MSFS

1. WINNER: FlyByWire A380X – 43%
   
2. FlyByWire A32NX – 22%
   
3. Horizon 787 – 6%
   
4. Headwind A330neo – 3%
   
5. LordFrites ‘The Scrapyard Monster’ – 2%
   

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Best Freeware Aircraft – X-Plane

1. WINNER: Zibo 737 Mod – 22%
   
2. LevelUP 737 v2 – 11%
   
3. Aerogenesis A330 – 2%
   

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Best Freeware Aircraft – DCS

1. WINNER: Community A-4E-C (heclak) – 7%
   
2. UH-60L Blackhawk (Kinkkujuustovoileipä) – 6%
   
3. OH-6A / MH-6J (Tobsen & Eightball) – 5%
   

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Best Scenery Add-on – MSFS

1. WINNER: iniBuilds – Manchester (EGCC) – 19%
   
2. Pyreegue – Birmingham (EGBB) – 13%
   
3. Aerosoft – Düsseldorf (EDDL) – 11%
   
4. Orbx – Jurassic World – 7%
   
5. RWProfile – Newcastle (EGNT) – 6%
   

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Best Scenery Add-on – X-Plane

1. WINNER: SimWings – Hamburg (EDDH) – 6%
   
2. Aerosoft – Svalbard XP – 3%
   
3. Darkblue – Haneda (RJTT) – 3%
   
4. Maps2XPlane – 2%
   
5. Northern Sky Studios – Hawaii – 2%
   

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Best Aircraft Add-on – MSFS

1. WINNER: iniBuilds A350 Airliner – 28%
   
2. PMDG 737-800 – 23%
   
3. Black Square Starship – 10%
   
4. A2A Aerostar 600 – 8%
   
5. iniBuilds A340-300 – 8%
   

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Best Aircraft Add-on – X-Plane

1. WINNER: FlightFactor 777 Freighter – 8%
   
2. Felis 747-200 – 7%
   
3. ToLiss A320 CEO – 6%
   
4. LevelUP 737 v2 – 5%
   
5. Carenado F33A – 2%
   

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Outstanding Hardware

1. WINNER: WinWing / WinCTRL MCDU/FMC – 40%
   
2. Moza AB9 FFB Base – 8%
   
3. Honeycomb Aeronautical Echo – 5%
   
4. WingFlex A320 Overhead Panel – 4%
   
5. Pimax Crystal Super VR Headset – 3%
   

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Hover Award

1. WINNER: Miltech MH60 – 18%
   
2. Taog OH-6A – 6%
   
3. Cowan S-76C – 3%
   

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Outstanding Product Update

1. WINNER: Fenix A320 Series BFU – 56%
   
2. JustFlight / Black Square 2024 Lineup – 13%
   
3. Leonardo Maddog 20th Anniversary – 5%
   
4. X-Crafts E-Jets Update – 4%
   
5. Volanta by Orbx (Offline Update) – 3%
   

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Best Tool or Utility (Payware)

1. WINNER: Navigraph – Charts VFR – 31%
   
2. Parallel 42 – ChasePlane – 26%
   
3. GSX – Map Update – 19%
   
4. REX – Atmos Core – 6%
   
5. Parallel 42 – Typical Weather – 1%
   

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Best DIY Hardware

1. WINNER: MobiFlight – 22%
   
2. SpadNext – 9%
   
3. FlightSimMods – 5%
   
4. 737 DIY Sim – 4%
   
5. Desktop Aviator – 1%
   

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Innovation Award

1. WINNER: WinCTRL – 23%
   
2. Navigraph – 20%
   
3. Fenix – 16%
   
4. SayIntentions – 15%
   
5. BeyondATC – 14%
   

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Rising Star Award

1. WINNER: Boris Audio – 46%
   
2. Hues – 10%
   
3. Echo19 – 9%
   
4. iFlySimX – 4%
   
5. Commercial Simulation Systems (CSS) – 2%
   

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Community Contribution Award

1. WINNER: EasyJetSimPilot – 20%
   
2. FlightDeck2Sim – 16%
   
3. Kenco – 9%
   
4. AusFlightSimmer – 8%
   
5. Evan and Phil (FSExpo) – 6%
   

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Best Freeware Scenery – MSFS

1. WINNER: World Update 20: Japan – 21%
   
2. iniBuilds Wolf’s Fang Runway – 11%
   
3. rekinowy LROP – 10%
   
4. World Update 19: Brazil – 9%
   
5. Stranger Things DLC Pack – 5%
   

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Best Freeware Scenery – X-Plane

1. WINNER: Louisville Muhammad Ali International (Zero Dollar Payware) – 7%
   
2. Cleveland Hopkins Intl (JetSet Designs) – 2%
   
3. Costa Rica Airfields (LuisJimenez) – 2%
   
4. Henderson Executive Airport (JetSet Designs) – 2%
   
5. Caucasus Real World Light (scarythrash) – 1%
   

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Picasso – Best Aircraft Painter

1. WINNER: Hues – 21%
   
2. Atarium – 18%
   
3. Jviation – 9%
   
4. Aanerud – 5%
   
5. Comet133 – 3%
   

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Best Customer Support

1. WINNER: Fenix – 31%
   
2. iniBuilds – 11%
   
3. PMDG – 10%
   
4. Just Flight – 9%
   
5. Contrail – 8%
   

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Best Aircraft Add-on – DCS

1. WINNER: C-130J (Airplane Simulation Company) – 13%
   
2. MiG-29A Fulcrum (Eagle Dynamics) – 4%
   
3. F4U-1D Corsair (Magnitude 3 LLC) – 2%
   

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Lifetime Achievement Award

1. WINNER: Magnus (Navigraph) – 27%
   
2. Austin Meyer (Laminar Research) – 20%
   
3. Robert Randazzo (PMDG) – 17%
   
4. Martyn (Just Flight) – 8%
   
5. Stefano (Leonardo) – 5%

Looking Ahead

As with any growing event, your feedback plays a vital role. Throughout the voting process and during the live show, we’ve been listening closely to your thoughts and suggestions.

Now in its second year, the Flight Sim Awards have already taken a significant step forward, and we’re only just getting started. Our ambition is to make this a cornerstone event for the community, something that not only recognises excellence, but inspires it.

By celebrating the best in flight simulation, we hope to encourage developers, publishers, and creators to continue pushing boundaries and raising the bar for everyone.

We’re excited for what’s ahead and look forward to evolving the awards into an even bigger and more impactful event in 2027.

Congratulations once again to all nominees and winners of the Flight Sim Awards 2026.

The Flight Sim Awards is a collaborative effort, proudly supported by FSWeekend, cruiselevel, Threshold, and FSElite.

Notes: Percentages done add up to 100% as the remaining amount was where users selected SKIP. The community selected the nominees at an earlier stage of the awards. Awards were handed out in person or will be shipped to the winners at a later stage.