See 13 New Countries and More With New Microsoft Flight Simulator Update

Microsoft Flight Simulator's newest world update lets you fly across Oceania and Antarctica, adding over 40 new geographical locations to visit and explore.

It wasn't all that long ago that Microsoft Flight Simulator brought New Zealand into its ever-expanding atlas, and now the world is growing yet again. The game's thirteenth World Update adds Antarctica and several notable territories from Oceania, along with more airports, new missions and challenges, and around 150 points of interest.

While Antarctica is fairly vast, Microsoft has marked the Antarctic Peninsula as a particularly notable inclusion, though Oceania seems to be the more densely packed region of the two. With Hawaii, Easter Island, Fiji, New Caledonia, New Guinea, West Papua, the Solomon Islands, and the Galapagos all being made flyover-able. As always, the update uses aerial photos, satellite imaging, and digital elevation data to make these areas look as spot-on as possible.

Other notable inclusions are viewable Moai statues, Indonesia's Autograph Tower, several Antarctic research stations, and Tahiti's Point Venus Lighthouse. More than a dozen new airports have also been added, from Bora Bora to Nusatupe, all hand-crafted and some even offering short take-off and landing challenges.

But if you want to do more than sightsee, the update also adds five new Discovery Flights, three more Landing Challenges, and a trio of Bush Trips. All of which take place in specific locations and require using particular aircraft to complete.

World Update XIII is available today as a free download across all versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator—Standard, Deluxe, and Premium. It's also available across all platforms that support the game, including the Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows, Steam, Game Pass, and Xbox Cloud Gaming.