Flight Simulator 2024 Players Getting Stuck in Hours-Long Loading Screens, Xbox Says It's Working on the Issue

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is officially out today, and fans are eagerly hopping into their virtual cockpits to take to the skies once again. Or at least, they're trying.

Players are taking to social media to report initial loading screens that are lasting for two hours or more. Its propensity for hanging at around 97 percent has led to memes about "Microsoft Flight Simulator 97" and other jokes. Some fans aren't even that lucky, getting stuck at around six percent.

In a post on X/Twitter, Microsoft said that it's aware of the problems and working on a solution. "We are aware of user reports of long initial loading times into Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. With so many users initializing the sim concurrently, we have a large number of server requests. We are working to help resolve the issues as soon as possible. For users whose initial load is past 90% and no longer progressing, we recommend a reboot. Otherwise we advise waiting to allow the loading to proceed as normal."

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is the follow-up to 2020's Microsoft Flight Simulator. Among its additions are a brand-new career mode and new aircraft types such as gliders and hot air balloons. We wrote in our preview, "I am suitably impressed with what I saw, and I didn't think they'd be able to improve on MSFS 2020 much more than an iterative update, but this is a reimagining of the entire franchise. Everything good… is better now, and everything new looks awesome and fun."

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is available now on Xbox Series X|S and PC.

Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.