The Sims

The Sims is a 2000 social simulation video game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. Designed by Will Wright, the game allows players to create and control virtual people called Sims, build and furnish homes, and manage the Sims' needs, relationships, careers, and household finances. Its open-ended gameplay has no fixed win condition. Wright conceived the game after his work on the SimCity series. The project drew on architecture and design theory, including Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language, and began as an architecture-oriented simulation before the development team shifted its focus toward the simulated people themselves. Seven expansion packs were released between 2000 and 2003. The Sims received widespread critical acclaim and became a major commercial success. In 2002, Electronic Arts announced that it had surpassed Myst as the best-selling PC game at the time, with more than 6.3 million copies sold worldwide; by September 2004, combined sales of the game and its expansions had passed 41 million units. It won several Game of the Year awards and has been cited as one of the most influential video games of all time. It was followed by The Sims 2 (2004), The Sims 3 (2009), and The Sims 4 (2014). Electronic Arts re-released the game for modern Windows PCs in 2025 as The Sims Legacy Collection.

Source: Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0 — The Sims (video game) · retrieved October 19, 2026

Developer

Maxis

Publisher

Electronic Arts, Aspyr, Findev

First release

February 4, 2000

Series

The Sims

Cover

Official thumbnail

Record ID

Q184816