10 Games like The Sims 4 that will let you live a virtual life

If you're looking for more games like The Sims 4, there's a whole world of titles that put you behind the wheel. Whether you want to design houses, build communities, cultivate a romance, or just order someone else around, there are plenty of brilliant simulation games out there to try.

While you might have been waiting for The Sims 5 to get your next fix, we've been told by Maxis that it won't be a traditional installment in the series as we originally imagined, so it's probably time to branch out a little. Outside of the seemingly endless DLC for the base game, The Sims 4 has inspired countless other sim games, including the upcoming inZOI. We've put together a list of some of the best, and maybe a few you wouldn't otherwise have considered.

The best games like The Sims, starting with...

10. My Time at Sandrock

Developer: Pathea
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PC

My Time at Sandrock is well-known among cozy game aficionados as "the life sim that will ruin other life sims for you." The game incorporates an array of classic concepts (farming, romance, town planning, dungeon crawling) into a genuinely fascinating post-apocalyptic setting where mysteries lie under every stone and in every dungeon. It's also a beautiful game with a diverse cast of characters for you to romance, antagonize, or become besties with.

To get you started, we've got a guide to finding Quartz in My Time at Sandrock. Crafting and harvesting resources is key in this game, as you'll be largely responsible for the economic prosperity of the town pretty much from day one. Sandrock presents a heartwarming challenge for life sim lovers, and it's a great time to be getting into the series, with the slightly more grown-up My Time at Evershine currently in the works. Check out our preview of My Time at Evershine if you're curious – the game raised more than 2.5 million dollars via Kickstarter last year and is finally bringing a multiplayer mode to these beloved sim games.

9. Stardew Valley

Developer: ConcernedApe
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch

Ah, Stardew Valley. As another time stealer with oodles of heart, this charming farming sim is like The Sims 3 if you were a farmer in the pixelated countryside. Going at your own pace, you can build up your farm, decorate your house, and get engrossed in Stardew Valley's endlessly interesting community. Just like the Sims, you can form relationships with every character in each household of the Valley, and all the residents have their own unique stories. You can also put on your decorating hat and make the coziest farm in all the land.

There's so much more than meets the eye in this delightful RPG. Fishing, mining, cooking, farming, and raising farm animals are just a few ways to keep yourself occupied. From its relatable characters to its hidden secrets, playing one in-game day's worth won't be enough. Before you know it, you'll sink hours into making your farm just right without realizing how much time has passed you by.

8. RimWorld

Developer: Ludeon Studios
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC

RimWorld isn't as cute or wholesome as the other entries but instead appeals to those who like bossing their Sims around, taking complete control of their life, and overseeing generations of successful progeny. If that's you then RimWorld will make for a perfect next move. This complex colony sim crash-lands a team of three onto a randomly generated planet and waits for you to make the next move.

Each colonist will have traits, strengths, weaknesses, and interpersonal relationships, and it's up to you to make it work. The world can be harsh, with freezing winters that kill off your crops to solar flares that destroy your technology. You'll have flora and fauna to contend with, as well as the needs of your growing colony. Can you make friends and trade with the planet's inhabitants, or will you become a merciless killing unit and take what you can get? Another similarity with The Sims is the amount of DLC you can add, from religious ideology to the concept of dynasty and royalty.

7. Cities: Skylines

Developer: Colossal Order
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch

Who doesn't love being able to decide the fate of Sims? Whether you want to help them fulfill their dreams or be the cause of their untimely demise by trapping them in a pool or setting a stove on fire, having all the power is what makes it so much fun. If this is why you love to get stuck into the Sims world, Paradox's Cities: Skylines will feed your desire to be a virtual god even more. It's also one of the best city building games ever made, so it's a must-play!

Instead of just managing a household, you manage an entire city, with all manner of ways to help it thrive or cause chaos. And if building and designing is your bag, you'll be glad to know you can design and build up your city however you wish. All jokes aside, if you thought managing a big family household or town was a challenge, managing a city takes it to a whole other level. Contending with natural disasters, pollution, and traffic jams are just some of the problems a city can encounter, and you can deal with them however you want.

6. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Developer: Nintendo
Platforms: Nintendo Switch

We waited so long for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and it was worth every second. The game doesn't just let you build and decorate your own home but a whole island. All the best features are there - designing your own clothes, sending letters and gifts to friends, and collecting adorable home furnishings - but now you can also travel to other islands courtesy of Dodo Airlines, and even indulge in a spot of terraforming to create ponds, rivers, and cliffs wherever you want.

Its never-ending gameplay loop of fishing, catching bugs, improving your home, and making friends with an ever-increasing cast of quirky critters is incredibly comforting. If you're looking for thrills, there are always tarantulas to stalk and the turnip stock market to play. Check out our Animal Crossing: New Horizons review for more cozy details.

5. Coral Island

Developer: Stairway Games
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X, PC

It's a real shame that Coral Island never made it to the Switch, because with its seamless combo of Animal Crossing, The Sims, and Stardew Valley, it's ripe for Nintendo fans to sink their teeth into. Fortunately, you can grab a copy of the wholesome farming sim on other consoles and PC. It's a truly gorgeous-looking game with plenty of customization options and a vast community to explore.

You move to Coral Island from a busy city life, hoping to take things a little slower and learn to live off the land. Your new home, it turns out, is absolutely packed with complex characters, shops, farms, pets, resources, and fun things to do. It's like being on holiday all the time. Dig for gemstones, go diving to restore the reef, play a part in ecological projects, and eventually find the love of your life. Coral Island has a bit of everything – even mermaids!

4. The Sims Medieval

Developer: Maxis Redwood Shores
Platforms: PC

Okay, so this might be cheating, but The Sims Medieval offers such a unique twist to the mainline Sims franchise that it deserves to be mentioned. Incorporating elements of RPG into the life sim framework, The Sims Medieval is a spin-off that starts players off as a monarch of a burgeoning medieval kingdom and puts you to work setting the place up. You'll still have a castle to decorate and can start a family, but the addition of quests makes TSM's goal-oriented gameplay a true standout offering.

You'll have to build churches, graveyards, medical quarters, and more in order to keep the townsfolk happy. Will you send them to the stocks for being disobedient? Will you sneak away from the throne room to sail the seas and claim lands from adjacent kingdoms? Will you simply stay home and lap up the lavish life of a medieval noble, courting suitors and birthing heirs to the throne? This is no ordinary game like The Sims; this is The Sims, but better.

3. MySims: Cozy Bundle

Developer: Maxis
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC

If you want your Sims experience with a dose of nostalgia, EA's MySims: Cozy Bundle rerelease is just the ticket. A throwback to, for many of us, a simpler time, these cuboid creations were Millennials' original Roblox. Dress 'em up, design their houses, go on adventures, and solve fun puzzles – what was once "The Sims for kids" is now looking like a pretty good premise for adults, too.

The Cozy Bundle (released on Nintendo Switch in November 2024 and PC in March 2025) includes two classic MySims games, the original and MySims Kingdom. If you spend more of your time on The Sims 4 decorating houses and parks than actually letting your Sims live, you'll enjoy the focus on creativity, design, and customization. You'll not be able to drown your Sims or propose a Woo Hoo, but there's not a lot in this world you can't accessorize with wholesome charm.

2. Fields of Mistria

Developer: NPC Studio
Platforms: PC

Fields of Mistria may be "anime Stardew Valley" but I think most of us would struggle to find an issue with that. Although still in Steam Early Access, Fields of Mistria is the gourmet, Michelin Star, connoisseur's choice meal of farming sims. NPC Studio incorporates an array of inspirations from Harvest Moon to Slime Rancher, crafting a game that gives you more of what you want and none of the rest. It's got all your traditional farming sim accouterments – fishing, growing turnips, flirting – all gently brushed with a taste of magic and fantasy.

We got particularly excited about Fields of Mistria, for what it doesn't do as much as for what it does. Farming sims, even the best ones, can quickly turn into min-max capitalism simulators if we're not careful, but this game offers something very different. In our early access preview feature, we noticed that "the game doesn't expect you to build a turnip empire in a matter of weeks, and make use of all your land from the get-go. You can focus your efforts on a small, manageable vegetable plot that you can easily make a living off. There's no pressure to create excess. Fields of Mistria isn't concerned with efficiency."

1. House Flipper 2

Developer: Frozen District
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X, PC

House Flipper was an excellent game, but House Flipper 2 improves upon it in almost every way. Another one for the more creative players – this trash-slinging, sofa-hauling, paint-sploshing, window-clean-a-thon is one of the most satisfying games you'll ever play. In our four-star House Flipper 2 review, we asserted that the game "gives the same satisfaction as doing up an actual property," and we stand by it.

If you could clean and decorate your Sims' houses from a first-person perspective, you'd get an idea of what it's like to play House Flipper. The career mode sees you start off as a total rookie, slowly moving on to bigger and better projects as your skills and finances increase, while sandbox mode lets your creativity flow freely. Build a beautiful grand abode, a humble starter home, or a real pile of rubbish – the choice is yours.

Looking for more suggestions? Be sure to check out our list of games like Stardew Valley. Or, if you fancy looking ahead to the future, read our list of all the new games heading our way. For more on The Sims, we also have a list of the best Sims 4 expansion packs for you to pick up.