It’s (almost) finally here—Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 was announced during the Xbox Games Showcase in June 2023, and the much-anticipated game will launch on PC and Xbox Series X|S alongside Xbox Cloud Gaming platforms later today. The exact time depends on your region, as developer Asobo Studio plans to open the game simultaneously across the globe. If you’re unsure which Flight Simulator 2024 edition to buy, you can try the game when it launches on Game Pass at the same time today if you have an active subscription on Xbox or PC.
When can I play Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024?
If you’re on the West Coast of the US, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will launch at 08:00 AM (PT), while those on the East Coast can grab it from 11:00 AM (ET.) Across the pond, Brits like me will have to wait until 04:00 PM (GMT) before the game installation can begin. Unfortunately, pre-installation offerings have turned out to be quite disappointing, as the download barely hits 330.09MB (megabyte) while the full game is expected to be at least 50GB (gigabytes.)
| City | Time zone | Launch time |
|---|---|---|
| Seattle | Pacific Standard Time (PST) | 08:00 |
| Mexico City | Central Standard Time (CST) | 10:00 |
| New York City | Eastern Standard Time (EST) | 11:00 |
| London | Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) | 16:00 |
| Amsterdam | Central European Time (CET) | 17:00 |
Critically, the game relies heavily on cloud-streamed assets to recreate a digitized version of planet Earth, which can lead to bandwidth demands peaking at 81GB per hour. No matter which platform you’re planning to play on, you’ll need to ensure you have enough time to download what is expected to be a sizeable installation, followed by constant data usage that could affect any usage caps applied by your Internet Service Provider (ISP.)
I’ll be tentatively waiting for the launch towards the end of my workday with my fingers crossed for a healthy download speed. While my ISP provides around 900Mb/s downstream, players will be limited by Microsoft’s ability to push the game files through its servers at the time of release, which led to slow download speeds in the past.
My thoughts on the game will follow soon after release as I’m eager to see how Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 lives up to expectations since my colleague Samuel Tolbert saw it during his early hands-on preview in September. Until then, I’ll be setting up one of my favorite flight sticks, ready to test the game on my Xbox Series X and PC.
