15 Best Games Like The Sims That You Should Know Update 03/2024

There are a lot of great simulation video games like The Sims on this list, so if you’re a fan, you’re going to enjoy it.

Our digital avatars, created in life simulation games like The Sims, allow us to live vicariously through their relationships, interests, jobs, and other social interactions.

After three decades, The Sims has amassed a devoted following eager for the next expansion, add-on, or piece of downloadable content (DLC).

If you’ve been a Sims fan for a long time, you’ve probably played every version of the game that’s been released. There might be some new games out there for you if that is the case.

In this article, we’ll look at the greatest The Sims clones to play in 2022.

There are a lot of games out there that are influenced by The Sims in some way or another. Stay tuned as this list is continually being expanded.

Check out our other lists for more game recommendations while you’re here:

1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing New Horizons

As far as tone and gameplay are concerned, Animal Crossing and The Sims have always had a lot of similarities. In New Horizons, players can build their own settlements with their own routes, rivers, cliffs, woods, gardens, and more thanks to the introduction of a crafting system and island terraforming.

The game allows you to personalize your character’s appearance and furnish your house with items you’ve chosen yourself, just as in The Sims. The game invites you to take things at your own pace, even if it is more structured than The Sims, with the goal of repaying your debt to Tom Nook.

It’s also possible to visit your friends’ islands if you have Nintendo Switch Online subscription.

2. My Time at Portia

The open-world RPG My Time at Portia, developed by Pathea Games, is a good choice for those who appreciate games with a wide range of content. You take on the role of a newcomer to Portia, a little coastal town with the potential to grow into a bustling metropolis. Fishing, farming, mining, crafting, and cooking are just a few of the daily tasks that players can engage in while playing the game.

You are encouraged to collaborate and create relationships with the citizens of Portia by the open-ended storyline of each assignment. Whether it’s creating a new technology to make life easier, or helping out a neighbor in need, the goals are diverse.

Players can marry and have children just like in The Sims, which allows them to personalize their characters and their homes to the same extent.

3. Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley

In the vein of The Sims, Stardew Valley is a farming-sim RPG that provides a calming experience reminiscent to harvest moon. Your goal is to resurrect your grandfather’s old farm by planting and selling crops, eventually expanding your business into other sectors like ranching, wine-making, baking, and the like.

In the game, there is a day/night cycle that pushes you to plan out your day’s activities, whether it be exploring mines or chatting with your neighbors.

The people of Stardew each have their own individual characteristics, making it possible to develop meaningful connections with one another and fostering a sense of belonging that can linger long after the game has ended.

4. Littlewood

Fans of The Sims may enjoy Littlewood, a retro-style 2D game. After fighting a Dark Wizard and restoring peace to the town of Littlewood, you play as a hero who loses their memories.

Solemn, the game’s enormous globe, is at your disposal to acquire resources and recruit new residents to help rebuild Littlewood to its former splendor.

Solemn is home to a diverse cast of personalities, each having a distinct reason for being there.

Additionally, Littlewood offers a wide range of hobbies and crafts, such as farming and fishing, as well as merchanting. When resources are collected, they can be used to reshape the landscape of Littlewood in accordance with the player’s vision.

5. Two Point Hospital

Unlike The Sims 4 Careers expansion, Two Point Hospital focuses on the numerous issues that come with treating patients and operating a network of hospitals, rather than simply treating patients.

Players are entrusted with employing personnel, teaching them how to utilize medical equipment, decorating the offices and public areas, and passing routine inspections at the facility..

With no time to fill out paperwork, you’re thrown directly into dealing with the patients, who have a wide range of absurd ailments and disorders. This keeps the game light and fun.

‘Lightheadedness’, for example, causes a person’s head to light up. To fix it, you’ll need a doctor who knows how to remove the patient’s brain from their skull and replace it with a 3D-printed replacement.

6. Cities: Skylines

Cities Skylines

Cities: Skylines will likely appeal to fans of traditional city-building games like SimCity who enjoy making decisions that affect the lives of their citizens. First, you are assigned as Mayor and asked to build your own metropolis from the ground up, using simple tools and features that nevertheless allow for more complicated playstyles to be used.

You can create a beautiful little utopian society or bring about a modern-day catastrophe with power over things like education, natural resources, policing, healthcare, and more.

Similar to The Sims, the fun of Cities: Skyline derives from the sense of being a virtual god who can command any NPC to do whatever he wants. Power can be used for good or evil, but it’s up to you.

7. Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles

Maybe you’ve always wanted to take your Sim to exotic locations far from the constraints of modern civilisation. If this is the case, Yonder is a colorful open-world game with a broad group of NPCs to interact with.

You’ll be searching for mystical creatures known as Sprites, which have the ability to rid the world of a toxin known as Murk.

Although it is more story-driven than The Sims, it has a variety of life sim concepts and gameplay components to discover. Characters in the game can gain new talents by doing odd jobs, expand their farmland all over the world, make new friends by doing favors, and even adopt pets as pets.

Like many of the other games on this list, Yonder’s gameplay and advancement are both relaxed and enjoyable.

8. House Flipper

When playing The Sims, constructing and decorating your own home is an essential aspect of the experience. Even though The Sims 4 has some of the best building tools yet, there are a few other games in the franchise that take a similar approach to home improvement, if not a better one.

House Flipper offers as both a spoof and a real-life simulation of house flipping for those who love both.

Virtual properties are bought and sold in the hopes of generating a profit in this game. But before you can flip a house, you’ll need to put in some work to make it more appealing to potential purchasers.

They can remove walls, paint rooms, and decorate their homes with new appliances or furnishings if they’re really serious about their investment.

9. Fallout Shelter

Fallout Shelter

Bethesda’s free-to-play base builder may be enjoyed by even people who aren’t familiar with the lore-heavy universe of the Fallout franchise. When you play Fallout Shelter, you assume the role of Vault Overseer, an all-seeing entity tasked with creating a safe haven for the world’s survivors in the aftermath of nuclear war.

You’ll be in charge of resource management, construction of research centers, and the general well-being of your city’s inhabitants.

A few RPG mechanics, such as character attributes, are there, but they’re straightforward to work with. When it comes to committing mistakes, the game is quite flexible and even encourages you to take risks for the sake of the underground civilisation.

Make your mark on the future of humanity and deal with radioactive bugs in the process with this title.

10. Oxygen Not Included

It’s possible to escape the post-apocalyptic setting of Fallout Shelter by establishing a space colony. As a leader of a team of astronauts attempting to survive on an alien planet’s surface in Oxygen Not Included, you’ll have a lot of decisions to make.

As the name implies, oxygen is in short supply, so you’ll need to take precautions to ensure that you have plenty of it at all times.

Your colony is constantly at the mercy of its surroundings, and this can lead to a lot of trouble. Your colonists’ mental states will constantly shift due to fluctuating temperatures, pollution, and other factors.

As you plan out the structure of your base and decide on the best power source, the game lets you develop your own distinctive playstyle despite the steep learning curve.

11. Planet Zoo

If you’ve always wanted to open a zoo of your own, Planet Zoo is a wonderful alternative to the Sims. In the game, you’re tasked with providing daily care for a diverse group of animals, each with their own unique diet, environment, and social dynamics. It is possible to play in a variety of ways customized to the needs of different players.

If you choose, you can play as a single character and follow them through their entire zookeeping career, or you can become a franchiser, in charge of running an entire zoo facility.

The game has a variety of modes, including a “challenge” option and a “infinite” building mode. Other Frontier Developments management sims include Planet Coaster and Jurassic World Evolution, if any of that appeals to you.

12. Graveyard Keeper

Graveyard Keeper

When it comes to playing The Sims as the Grim Reaper, Graveyard Keeper is your best bet. As a “medieval cemetery management sim,” the game finds you overseeing a burial operation that eventually expands into additional optional fields.

You can bury the bodies in the dirt, or you can start making money by selling the extra meat to the butcher in your area.

If you haven’t noticed before, the game is full of sarcastic wit. Cost-cutting may be necessary just to keep the firm afloat at times.

There are moral dilemmas to be made, such as whether to spend time and money on potions made from high-quality materials or to utilize whatever you can find in surrounding caverns and rivers, which may potentially poison the whole settlement.

13. Colony Survival

The Sims meets Minecraft in Colony Survival, an independent city management sim. Players take control of an unassuming colony that develops over time into a bustling metropolis filled with diverse jobs and the latest in technological advances.

If your town is attacked by monsters, you’ll also need to keep your residents busy and productive. It’s possible to send colonists to establish new towns and find additional resources if you’re successful enough.

A unique blend of exploration, crafting, and management sim action sets this game apart from the rest of the list.

14. Paralives

When it comes to life simulations, Paralives already stands out as a step above the rest. For years, fans of The Sims have been asking for new features to be added to their favorite franchise, and now an indie company is bringing them to life in an entirely new game!

Buildings and furniture may be completely customized, characters can be created in greater detail, AI for characters can be further developed, and there are drivable cars and many other new features.

To construct characters and dwellings in Paralives, users use simple tools that allow for fine-tuning. You’ll be able to control your character’s daily routines both at home and in the game’s open world.

You can meet other players and have fun at nearby towns’ stores, parks, and offices.

15. Office Management 101

Office Management 101

Satirical in tone but inspired by the old-school business sims, Office Management 101 is currently in development. As the CEO of a fresh new consumer electronics company, players are tasked with turning the office they’ve been given into a money-making machine.

Employee recruitment, office layout design, and the company’s financial success are all under your purview.

Manage productivity and social interactions of your employees in this game, which gives you everything you need to construct your own capitalist dystopia.

Similarly to The Sims, individuals can be designed and have distinct personalities that determine how well they perform in their profession. For those who are interested, an alpha build demo is presently available to download.