What are the best games like The Sims? Suppose you’re fed up with setting your Sims on fire, watching them struggle to control their bladder, or seeing them wash their dinner plate in the bathroom sink. In that case, these games are very similar to The Sims but offer a nice alternative to EA’s Truman Show simulator.
You might be able to grab The Sims 4 for free these days, but sometimes it’s fun to try something different. While there are plenty of exciting life games on the horizon, including the hallowed Sims 5 release date, some of the best PC games available take their cue from Maxis. Join us as we run the gamut of games like The Sims on PC, from managing budgets in Two Point Hospital to forging relationships in Stardew Valley.
Here are the best games like The Sims:
Dreamlight Valley
This Disney life sim places you in Dreamlight Valley itself, and you must set about bringing Disney and Pixar villagers back home after a mysterious event. This provides extensive, story-driven gameplay, while the story is driven by making friends. OK, you can’t make them unhappy, and it’s pretty easy to build a friendship, but story and friendship quests that take place as you build out and decorate the valley itself are constantly entertaining, and soon you’ll have a Sims-like town filled with comrades. PCGamesN has you covered for this game with our Disney Dreamlight Valley characters list, a Dreamlight Valley recipes guide, and all the latest working Dreamlight Valley codes.
Tiny Life
Tiny Life isn’t just like The Sims – it basically is The Sims. This early access life simulator goes back to basics, stripping out all the iterations and complexities of Sims 4 to transport you to a simpler time. Its pixel-based aesthetic and muted tones capture the crunchy polygons of yesteryear as you manage a household of hapless humans like it’s the year 2000.
Tiny Life is currently in early access, so if it’s feeling a little sparse right now, you’re in luck – developer Ellpeck Games is introducing new objects, locations, and bodily functions to keep things fresh. It also includes mod support to download community-built furniture kits and unique homes – or design them yourself. More clone than successor, Tiny Life is the nostalgia trip we’ve always wanted.
Second Life
Second Life was an institution for life game lovers in the mid-2000s, and while it hasn’t quite managed to surpass those Y2K heights, it survives with a user base in the tens of thousands. This is partially down to its wealth of user-generated content, from scenic alpine peaks to warehouse raves with live music. While it’s billed as a virtual online experience rather than a videogame, Second Life is what you make of it – and if you’re looking for a game like The Sims, it’s hard to go wrong with a virtual world that lets you be whoever you want. It’s also a free PC game, and its low barrier to entry is a great opportunity to try it on for size. Step aside, Metaverse – Second Life did it first, and arguably, did it best.
Two Point Hospital
The spiritual successor to Theme Hospital doesn’t disappoint. In Two Point Hospital, you’re tasked with managing a hospital, growing it from just a small reception to a full-blown operation of diagnostic rooms, wards, and, er, clown clinics. Everything can go wrong, and it often does, but learning to juggle the rising queues, the cranky doctors demanding pay rises, and training up fresh blood is half the fun.
Striking the right balance between staff and patient demands while remaining profitable will force you into rash decisions and woeful mistakes. If you love designing an ideal, functional Sims house and reacting to your Sims’ unpredictable mood swings, then you’ll love handling a pay dispute with Dr. Nigel Explosion. There are also plenty of fires to put out (literally) and ghosts to vacuum up in this weird but very wonderful ode to one of the best simulation games of all time.
House Flipper 2
We’ve replaced House Flipper on this list with its sequel, which takes things up a notch with new tools and a new UI. House Flipper takes what, in our opinion, is the best part of The Sims – creating the perfect house – and puts that front and center. Start with small jobs for other people, like cleaning up their mess after a garage gig or getting their new cafe ready for business, and earn the money you need to buy and flip houses of your own. Take a look at our House Flipper 2 review for more.
Pioneers of Pagonia
This cute colony sim from the makers of the classic game The Settlers stole our hearts during Steam Next Fest in 2023. Our Pioneers of Pagonia review attest to the simple joy of its “Wuselfaktor”: the satisfaction that comes from sitting back and watching a life simulation run its course.
While it offers a bit more strategy and city-building than The Sims, Pioneers still has enough similarities to earn a place on this list. You need to keep everyone in your settlement happy by ensuring that the correct buildings have been set up, that they have what they need to build them, and even make sure they have enough food and housing to reproduce. Then, while you’ve got some downtime and they’re all happy for now, just sit back and watch them interact with each other.
My Time at Sandrock
Speaking of the best relaxing games, My Time at Sandrock ranks high on our list. Now out of early access, it’s set to surpass My Time at Portia with its vital quality-of-life improvements to crafting and building. Sandrock is populated by a sleepy desert community that’s fallen into disrepair, and it’s up to you to transform it into a hub of productivity from your humble workshop. By expanding the land, you also expand Sandrock itself while helping its charming residents maintain it.
Unlike The Sims, the residents of Sandrock don’t go about their everyday lives as much as they’re tied to specific story events. However, you can still form relationships with the locals by giving them gifts, even going so far as to romance and marry them if you wish. While there are a lot of similarities between The Sims and My Time at Sandrock, the latter provides a slightly more wholesome, story-driven experience.
Stardew Valley
If farming games sound more up your street, there’s nothing more relaxing than Stardew Valley, a game where you leave the hubbub of the city and retire to a small town to take over the family farm. This life sim transports you to Pelican Town, where you get to know, befriend, and possibly marry the local residents (although there’s no WooHoo equivalent, despite the many Stardew Valley mods available).
As you forge relationships with the townspeople, you must keep on top of your farming, creating profitable produce and mining resources to put back into the local community and use for tool upgrades. If you’re interested in getting rich quickly, check out our guide on how to make money fast in Stardew Valley – it’s a bit trickier than using Sims 4 cheats.
Planet Zoo
Planet Zoo is an extensive and relaxing sim game where you’ll spend ages building enclosures and creating the perfect habitats for your critters. You can even raise animals to release back into the wild to earn conservation points, which unlock more exotic animals and upgrades for your zoo. You can either tackle a new zoo from scratch in sandbox mode or pull a low-performing zoo back from the brink in career mode.
Of course, there’s more to running a zoo than just cute pandas; you also need to keep the customers and your staff happy. Adequate seating and educational tools are a must, plus staff rooms for your hard-working employees to take a break. If you’re a stickler for details in The Sims, then Planet Zoo will have you obsessing over your zoo’s layout and aesthetic in no time.
Cities Skylines 2
If you want to rule over your residents without getting to really know them, you can detach yourself from your Sims’ disgruntled faces by overseeing the construction of a large city. Instead of zooming in on individual houses, you’ll need to think bigger as you grow and maintain a city using grids to build entire neighborhoods. Sure, Sims had their own answer to this in the form of the SimCity series, but the Cities Skylines games are arguably the best city-building games around.
Following the success of Cities Skylines, CS2 is about creating a well-functioning city with effective roads and junctions, a running water supply, and a self-contained economy, but with even more added extras to the first game. Think more advanced economical decisions, more detailed tax calculations, and better sounds. If you love The Sims’ construction mechanics, there’s a lot of similarity in Cities Skylines 2 management, but with more strategy and much less coaxing your Sim to get it on with Jeff from across the street. See what PCGamesN thought of the game in our Cities Skylines 2 review and if you are already playing then check our guide to the best Cities Skylines 2 mods.
Coral Island
Coral Island is the perfect alternative if you’re looking for a Sims-adjacent romantic life sim. You’re challenged to improve the town you recently moved into by clearing out the ocean of garbage and oil – and you can also improve your life by making friends along the way. If you make really good friends with someone, namely by giving them gifts, you can choose to marry them, and even have children with them, who themselves grow into adults.
GTA V
OK, hear us out. In GTA V, you play as a customized character in an open-world setting rife with content, from owning apartments to having your own garage packed with cars. There’s some Sims-esque action in earning money to buy and customize property, but instead of overseeing your Sims empire, you can roam the streets of Los Santos, choosing to throw a punch at an unsuspecting passerby or spin the wheel at the local Diamond Casino.
If you want a more authentic sims experience, GTA Online roleplaying allows players to play specific community roles like grocery store clerks, police officers, and taxi drivers. We’ve put together the best GTA Online roleplaying servers and how to join them, including some help navigating the forum lingo to get started. If you’re already playing, then check out list of GTA 5 cheat codes and the best GTA 5 mods. Oh, and join us in speculation over the GTA 6 release date.
Minecraft
You might be wondering how Minecraft is even remotely like The Sims, but here’s the thing: if you like the house-building aspect of The Sims, then Minecraft’s creative mode could be right up your, ahem, street (you know, like houses are on?). From vanilla mode to Minecraft mods, you can create masterpieces big or small – and even kit out the interior if you’re imaginative enough. If you’re a builder in The Sims, we’re certain the challenge of building in Minecraft will be satisfying and a walk in the park.
Now that you’ve had your fill of the best games like The Sims, why not check out some of the best management games for a bit more strategy? We’ve also got a list of the best Sims 5 mods on our wishlist and the Sims 5 cheats that are likely to appear in the next installment of our favorite life sim.