In 2022, players spent over 1.4 billion hours playing The Sims 4.

The transition to a free-to-play format is a move for a number of games that will be driven by frankly low player numbers or sales per se. The Sims 4 was definitely not one of the weak games, the game did well in the long run, but EA still thought it was a good idea to bet on free mode by charging for packs, a tactic that Paradox Interactive had also bet on in the past, whose Crusader Kings 2 is a game with an almost endless list of DLCs.

EA’s free-to-play bet seems to have paid off with The Sims 4. According to company statistics, players have managed to rack up 1.4 billion hours per game. And to make matters worse, players managed to create 18.5% more characters than in 2021. If you suddenly want to play this popular simulator, just download it for free.