Flight Simulator specs, download size: Minimum, Recommended and Ideal requirements explained

Flight Simulator download size and specs at a glance

If you want to play Flight Simulator on your PC, then you must first ensure that you've met the required specs to run the game.

No matter your PC hardware, you need to make sure you have enough room on your hard drive to accommodate the recommended Flight Simulator download size of 150 GB.

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In our experience with the final release of the game, we had an initial small download, before downloading an additional 95GB through an in-game installer.

First, if you were part of the Flight Simulator alpha or beta, the full release is a separate download and not an update to what you already have. There are some details on the official forums on how to make sure the old files are removed before you download fresh.

Second, sure you have enough hard drive space before downloading. Despite the installer stating how much room you have left, we didn't actually have enough - resulting it in crashing when it reached the limit as we left the PC running overnight. Just a cautionary tale for you!

After installing, you can then toggle how much world data you stream as you play, changing how much (realistic) world detail is shown around you, which is useful if you are on limited bandwidth.

Finally - the specs. Here are Flight Simulator's Minimum, Recommended and Ideal at a glance:

Regardless of your specifications, you also need Windows 10 (Nov 2019 update '1909' minimum).

Here are the Minimum, Recommended and Ideal specs for Flight Simulator one-by-one for easier reading:

Minimum specs for Flight Simulator

Here are the minimum specs that your PC must meet to run Flight Simulator, copied verbatim from the official Flight Simulator website:

Recommended specs for Flight Simulator

Here are the recommended specs that your PC must meet to run Flight Simulator, copied verbatim from the official Flight Simulator website:

For those investigating their Flight Simulator options, we have a planes list and airport list for each launch edition, a list of Flight Simulator Achievements. Then, when you start playing, we have explainers on weather and liveries, multiplayer, using autopilot and sim rate, and how to use the game's equivalent of photo mode with Active Pause.

Ideal specs for Flight Simulator

Here are the ideal specs that your PC must meet to run Flight Simulator, copied verbatim from the official Flight Simulator website:

If you're not a PC owner, then you'll have to wait until Flight Simulator's Xbox release.