It was recently revealed by Electronic Arts that, apparently, The Sims 4 is officially the most widely-played game in the history of the franchise, now that it has reached more than 70 million users worldwide.
This news comes months after the game pivoted to a free-to-play operating model, which reportedly brought more than 16 million all-new players to the popular life simulation platform. The Sims 4 was released way back in 2014, but almost a decade later, it looks as though the game’s pulling power remains relentless.
Constant Expansion
Most of the success of The Sims 4 can be attributed to the constant updates applied to the game by Electronic Arts. These updates come in form of expansion packs, which are regularly released – with a substantial cost – to broaden the base game considerably. There’s also a hefty repository of mods that can be applied to the game, as well as a massive gallery of user-created content that is actively shared around.
In a blog post released by EA on April 18th (and circulated by VGC), it was revealed that the weekly average user count has increased by a whopping 53-percent since the free-to-play model was adopted.
It already seems like that move was a lucrative one, as EA has seen untold success since making the move. In March, The Sims 4 Growing Together expansion pack was released, and it has now been confirmed that it saw more sales than any other pack launch since 2015 when the first-ever Sims 4 expansion dropped.
That’s the beauty of the free-to-play model at work – if people don’t pay for the base game, they’re typically more willing to pay smaller amounts periodically for extra content. That’s why games like Fortnite and Warzone make so much money in the battle royale space, which is typically dominated by free-to-play games.
Are you playing The Sims 4?
For more Insider Gaming news, check out our coverage of the news that Blizzard has banned more than 100,000 players in Overwatch 2 since the game launched in October.
I am not playing Sims 4. But I played the first three Sims games pretty heavily when I was younger. I enjoyed the series as a way to experiment with different kinds of living, and relationships. I still enjoy watching others play the game on YouTube, but I don’t think I’ll be playing the Sims franchise again until Sims 5 comes out.