As the world gets used to being in 2020, we’re taking a look back at the past year of news to see which articles you read the most. To do so, we took a list of our top 10 most-read articles of 2019 and collated them below. The Threshold team wrote 938 news articles last year, an average of two and a half articles every day. 

A little disclaimer, to be entered on this list, the article must have been published in the last year - news such as the announcement of the 737MAX by the Ultimate Team was still very popular this year, but is not included in this list.

10) YesAviation

Concluding 2019’s list, we come to YesAviation. The article, released on the 9th of October shows previews of the YesAviation 747-400 systems, including the FMC and Hydraulic systems. The YesAviation 747 is a work-in-progress simulation of the 747-400, building upon the aircraft included in X-plane out of the box. To keep up with developments from YesAviation join their Discord server here.

8) Laminar Research at FSExpo 2019

We finally reach the makers of X-Plane themselves, Laminar Research. Ranking popular with readers was a recap of their FSExpo presentation. The keynote included details of Vulkan, a release date for X-Plane 11.35, Mobile Global Scenery and Autin’s Ava project. The portion most readers were most excited for was undeniably the Vulkan/ Metal progress update. Laminar did not disappoint with performance statistics as well as an in-simulator screenshot. Check out recent Vulkan progress here.

7) xEnviro 1.10

Making the top 10 is xEnviro with the release of its version 1.10. The update was highly awaited, bringing volumetric clouds to the plugin, a first for X-Plane. Alongside the release of volumetric clouds, the release of V1.10 also brought the ability to add snow and many other new features to your simulator. For those users wanting to purchase xEnviro, they may do so here.

6) & 9) Zibo 737-800X

Any list wouldn’t be complete without what has to be every X-Plane user’s favourite freeware aircraft, the Zibo Mod 737-800X. Making it onto the top 10 twice for updates to the aircraft, the aircraft is clearly a fan favourite. With articles revolving around versions 3.37 and 3.36, the updates both majorly revolving around adding features and fixing bugs. The Zibo Mod can be downloaded here.

5) PMDG

Coming in at 5th place is PMDG with an article on the company, who was previously considering porting over one of their aircraft over to X-Plane. Now proved to never come to anything, the company was considering bringing over a product from their ESP (FSX & P3D) lineup over to X-Plane. Check out the original article here.

4) SSG 747-8i Version 2

Another popular article of the year was the news of the SSG 747-8i V2’s release date being set. The article, released on the 28th of October has the revised title of “SSG's 747-8i V2 Releasing Tomorrow”. Originally revolving around the publication of the release notes of the aircraft, although after its release the article was slightly edited as the developers provided a release date, which they had not done originally. The aircraft can be purchased for $65 here

‍2) SFD Global

Coming in at a close second place, is the Threshold’s exclusive look at the first preview shots of SFD Global. The default autogen enhancement was an instant hit with readers, promising to replace the standard autogen, terrain textures, landmarks and forests of X-Plane. For those interested in purchasing SFD Global, it is available for $30.

1) & 3) Ultimate 737-700

The single most read Threshold article of 2019 was the release of the Ultimate 737-700. Arguably the most anticipated aircraft of the year and by far the most anticipated freeware,  since the aircraft’s release on the 27th of April, the airliner amassed over 48,000 downloads, making it the most downloaded on the Threshold forums by a margin of 20,000.

The Ultimate 737-700 proved so popular that our 3rd most popular article was released on the same day, before the release of the aircraft. The article, an exclusive preview of the aircraft before the release reached 81 facebook reactions, close to the number reached upon release.

Thank you to Threshold Forum user sergio and Discord user Filip who provided some of the images for this article. Join the conversation over on the Threshold Discord server here.