The Sims
Shares rank 2 of 6 life simulation games by recommenders
Long-running life simulation game that people recommend for its huge success and for staying enjoyable across versions. Later Sims 4 is called safe and unambitious.
Long-running life simulation game that people recommend for its huge success and for staying enjoyable across versions. Later Sims 4 is called safe and unambitious.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 58%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Huge commercial success
“one single game, The Sims, earning the studio many billions of dollars, continuing to this day.”
Comment from 19 May 2026 in “Anthropic co-founder to present AI encyclical alongside Pope Leo XIV” “the billions of dollars The Sims made and its hundreds of millions of happy players”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “Anthropic co-founder to present AI encyclical alongside Pope Leo XIV” “becomes the best-selling PC game of all time”
Comment from 8 Jul 2026 in “The difference between "today's task" and "accretive work"” Still enjoyable across versions
“Not once did I ever play The Sims as intended. And enjoyed it enough to buy another version or two.”
Comment from 9 Aug 2026 in “Making difficulty curves in games” “The Sims 1 Was Made in 2000...and it's still amazing”
Comment from 30 Jul 2026 in “The coolest use for the Vision Pro”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Technical glitches on some versions
“The game worked. After some time the disc would fail at a file called voice1.package.”
Comment from 12 Mar 2026 in “Tested: How Many Times Can a DVD±RW Be Rewritten? Methodology and Results” “games that were tricky to get working because I used a 4K monitor (Sims 2, Crysis 2)”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Win32 is the stable Linux ABI” “The Sims (up to version 3, anyway) didn't want to deal with collisions on stairs”
Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “City building games have a Soul Problem pt.2”
Other life simulation games people recommend
The four most recommended other life simulation games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stardew Valley | 37 | 1 | 97% | 12 | — | Approved |
| The SimsThis page | 7 | 5 | 58% | 7 | — | — |
| Spore by Maxis | 7 | 11 | 39% | 5 | — | — |
| Pokémon Pokopia | 7 | 1 | 88% | 2 | — | — |
| Animal Crossing | 5 | 1 | 83% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 16 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The Sims (up to version 3, anyway) didn't want to deal with collisions on stairs”
“This is the same playbook we used before for The Sims”
“I moaned at the time, but on reflection, everyone was a winner”
“Not once did I ever play The Sims as intended. And enjoyed it enough to buy another version or two.”
“The Sims 1 Was Made in 2000...and it's still amazing”
“becomes the best-selling PC game of all time”
“the billions of dollars The Sims made and its hundreds of millions of happy players”
“one single game, The Sims, earning the studio many billions of dollars, continuing to this day.”
“I pointed out to my manager that the code was shit”
“safe but ultimately unambitious Sims 4”
“The game worked. After some time the disc would fail at a file called voice1.package.”
“some are good because they pushed the medium forward (Metal Gear Solid, Warcraft, The Sims, ...)”
“games that were tricky to get working because I used a 4K monitor (Sims 2, Crysis 2)”
“I'd played all night without noticing. Since then, I've given that kind of open-ended game a wide berth.”
“Both are procedural story writers.”
“Games that would let one rotate the isometric view once blew my mind”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.