On November 19, 2024, Microsoft Flight Simulator was released. The game had massive launch issues, which are now reflected in player numbers and ratings on Steam.
Why is Flight Simulator losing players? Since its release, Flight Simulator has struggled with significant performance issues. There are long loading times and other bugs that prevent players from even getting into the game.
These problems have frustrated gamers, and although the game managed to reach over 24,000 concurrent players (via SteamDB), they have now fallen to around 9,900. That’s a drop of about 40% within two days.
You can get a first impression of Flight Simulator with this trailer:
Flight Simulator is the new leader in poorly rated AAA titles
Why is the performance so poor? The developers stated that they simply underestimated how many players actually wanted to play the video game. They had simulated the game with 200,000 players, but there were far more.
Therefore, it was necessary to limit how many players could enter the game: Player influx is said to be the reason for Microsoft’s new game failing on Steam
These are the consequences: The poor performance frustrates players. Flight Simulator 2024 now has over 4,000 user reviews on Steam, of which only 26% are positive, and the game receives the stamp of “Mostly Negative” from Steam (via Steam).
And the simulator is getting something else: The title for the worst-rated AAA title on Steam. The game now surpasses Overwatch 2, which had a similar launch on Steam in August 2023.
It is to be expected that Flight Simulator will regain better player numbers and ratings with the next updates and patches. Sometimes developers also respond to negative reviews on Steam, as this example shows: Player writes negative review on Steam – receives the worst possible response from the developer
