Microsoft Flight Simulator City Update 13 brings improvements to California

The Microsoft Flight Simulator team has just announced a new city update for the game. City Update 13 is now available for free from the in-game marketplace, and it focuses on America's "Golden State," California.

The update brings new details and a more human touch to 18 urban areas across the state, including some of its most iconic and popular locations, giving players more beautiful visuals to enjoy and discover when flying. Those include Sacramento, the San Fransicso Bay area (San Rafael, Novato, Oakland, San Francisco, Fremont, and San Jose), the San Joaquin Valley, Central Coast (Santa Maria and Santa Barbara), Greater Los Angeles, San Diego, and more.

Here is what the team says about the update in the announcement blog post:

Called the “Golden State” due to its Gold Rush of the mid-19th century, fields of golden poppies, and reputation for boundless prospects, California is renowned for its beauty and diversity. City Update 13 celebrates California in the Microsoft Flight Simulator World by adding breathtaking detail to 18 urban regions across this renowned state.

Notable points of interest in Microsoft Flight Simulator Update 13 include the USS Midway Museum, the Soreliine Gateway Tower, the RMS Queen Mary, Intuit Dome, Santa Barbara Harbor, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and even Apple's headquarters in San Jose.

For those unfamiliar, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and 2024 recreate our planet in a 1-to-1 scale and populate cities, points of interest, and other parts of the planet with the help of various cartographic technologies. However, developers also often release so-called "City Updates" where humans add more refined and detailed areas and locations, such as landmarks, airports, buildings, bridges, parks, etc, for a more realistic and immersive experience.

City Update 13 is now available for all owners of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and 2020 on all supported platforms and Game Pass. Note that in order to get the update, you must update the game to version 1.39.9.0 (Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020) and 1.6.34.0 (Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024). Microsoft's iconic flight simulator is available on Xbox Series X|S, PC (in the Microsoft Store and Steam), Xbox Game Cloud, and PlayStation 5.

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Posted Thursday 29 January 2026 at 6:35 am AEST (my time).

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