Play with life and discover the possibilities. Unleash your imagination and create a world of Sims that’s wholly unique. Explore and customize every detail from Sims to homes–and much more.
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Themes across 329 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
Reviews
**Recommended? Yes... but with a huge asterisk.** I've played The Sims since the original game back in 2000, and after over 900 hours in The Sims 4, it's safe to say I genuinely love this franchise. I play heavily modded, own a large portion of the DLC, and when everything is working, there really is no other life simulation game that scratches the same itch. The build mode is fantastic, Create-a-Sim is the best it's ever been, and the amount of creativity the game allows is incredible. I've spent countless hours building homes, creating generations of families, and telling stories that no other game lets me tell in quite the same way. That said, loving The Sims 4 sometimes feels like being in a toxic relationship. EA's DLC model is honestly ridiculous. Expansion packs routinely launch at around £40, yet many arrive with bugs, missing features, or gameplay systems that feel unfinished. The amount of money required to experience what many players would consider the "full game" is staggering. At this point, the combined DLC cost is enough to buy several AAA games. Even more frustrating is that some features locked behind paid packs feel like things that should have been included in the base game years ago. Instead of meaningful expansions, there are times when content feels sliced up and sold separately. The game is also plagued by bugs. Sims ignore commands, pathfinding breaks, packs interfere with each other, and new updates often seem to introduce as many problems as they fix. Long-time players have learned to expect bugs rather than be surprised by them. Then there's the wider issue of EA's business practices. The franchise has increasingly felt focused on monetisation first and player experience second. The aggressive pack strategy, the endless stream of kits, and the perception that content is being drip-fed have left a sour taste for many veteran players. And yet... I've still played for over 900 hours. Because underneath all the corporate nonsense, overpriced DLC, questionable decisions, and constant bugs is a game that remains incredibly fun. When it works, it's brilliant. When it doesn't, it's infuriating. Would I recommend The Sims 4? Yes—but only if you're prepared for the reality that the base game alone feels incomplete, the DLC pricing is hard to justify, and you'll probably spend as much time working around bugs as you do playing. 900+ hours later, I'm still playing. I just wish EA made it easier to love.
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Languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil +6 more
Hours played at review time, across 330 reviews with recorded playtime.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
I bought (was bought) the physical Limited Edition copy of this game in 2014 twelve years ago when I was a whopping 6 years old. I can now legally operate a motor vehicle and have the motor skills necessary to write this. I didn't get any DLC when it came out, and still haven't. Right now, as of writing this, if I were to want the full experience for the video game I (my parents) paid for, I would need to spend A$ 1,532.73. I am writing this during a steam sale, by the way, with 70% of said DLC on sale. EA Sports. It's in the game.
If you love spending your hard earned money on useless things that don't work and are defintely not worth it, then this game is for you!! Please ignore my 1808hrs on this game, it was my cat.
Has in game ads
I've had, played, and loved this game for years. BUT never would i ever recommend the sims to anyone. Features that frankly should be in base game are consistently thrown throughout several $40 DLCs to the point where playing a decent game takes like 4 of those. This game is a cash grab that does not care about its users in any way. Do i still play it? yes, until a new(complete) sim like game comes out I've already paid for this trash will still use.
The added Ads that you cant skip.. absolute dog sh!t
The Sims as a whole has always been a comfort game of sorts to me, as I have played it throughout my life. Unfortunately, as I am sure you are all aware, EA has done their thing and destroyed this IP. So much so, in fact, that people have taken it upon themselves to recreate what once was in The Sims. For a much, much better alternative, I recommend Paralives. While, yes, the game is $40 by base, monetization throughout The Sims 4 has overshadowed the fact that the game is free-to-play in my opinion. Almost any piece of content you could think of is behind an egregious paywall that was erected by the greedy hands of EA. Paralives is an indie project and new to the market, but even after the bugs and rough edges that are inevitable when playing a new, indie release, the game still feels better than The Sims 4.
Added ads to the game that are not skippable.
Sims is a scam. Gameplay was good 10 years ago. 500 bucks is not enough for all the stuff you have to buy in order to play it properly. Ads are now a thing and you can not skip them. Greed consumed EA years ago but it seems to get worse. DO NOT BUY ANY CONTENT! And stop playing.
they just announced that they are going to inject dynamic advertisements into this game. i bought this game a long time ago, bought several DLC's, bought the other games, supported these devs, their publisher, their GREEDY EFFIN STOCKHOLDERS for YEARS, since the beginning, only for them to announce the scummiest thing i've ever heard them do. this is really absurd and unethical. i play videogames to get away from real life stuff, i don't want to be reminded to "BUY PRODUCT" all the time when i paid for something to alleviate that otherwise. if anything, this should be something you OPT INTO and receive awards or discounts for, not something that's forced onto us. yes, i know that i could just keep the game from the latest updates, but we shouldn't have to do that, it's besides the point. they shouldn't be allowed to do this on PRINCIPLE and ETHICS and it should be against the LAW. this really should be a class action lawsuit, and i really really really hope that Steam allows us all to get refunds, because i'm sure that none of us agreed to this kind of crap.
Engagement
DAU/MAU are modeled from peak concurrent players (≈×8 and ×28) — Steam publishes no active-user counts, so treat these as rough estimates, not reported figures.
Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
Audience
Games most often reviewed by the same players — an audience-affinity signal from our review sample, not full ownership data.