Is The Sims 4 free-to-play?

The Sims franchise, including 2014's The Sims 4, is one of the best-selling in gaming history, with over 200 million units sold on PC alone. The original title became a cultural phenomenon and still has a dedicated fanbase to this day. The most recent title, The Sims 4, was released back in 2014. Exact sales numbers are not known, but its publisher, EA, reports that over 70 million players have played the game since its launch.

It also has numerous expansion packs, which EA claims to have sold 30 million of so far. So, that begs the question (well, not really, but just go with it): do you still need to pay for The Sims 4 to play it? This article explains more.

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The Sims 4: Is it free-to-play?

Yes. Presently, players can download The Sims 4 base game and jump right in for free. Gratis. Complimentary. On the house. Yes, it's free-to-play.

In late 2022, EA announced that after nearly a decade on the market - and over two dozen Expansion and Game Packs - The Sims 4 would be entering the competitive world of free-to-play games (F2P). This turned out to be a good move, as the publisher reported an additional 16 million new players following its release.

The game has been so successful, that a new stand-alone entry in the series - codenamed "Project Rene" - was announced six months ago. Details are scarce, but we do know a couple of things. Namely, that this new title will also be free-to-play, and that it's not intended to replace The Sims 4.

There's no release date for the new Sims title as of now. EA and Maxis, upon the reveal, stated that they were announcing this entry "earlier than ever before," and that it is still "years out" before an actual launch. But, you've got The Sims 4 to hold you over until then, so there's that.

So, if you love The Sims but haven't played any of the games in a while, you might consider giving the fourth entry of the series a try. The Expansion and Game Packs are still sold separately, of course - although there are a handful of free add-ons. If you're just looking to get started, though, you really can't beat the price (or lack of).

The Sims 4 is available on pretty much any platform you can think of - the PlayStations, Xboxes, Steam, Epic Games Store, and Macintosh. You can probably even play it on your toaster at this point, although don't quote us on that.