The best Sims 4 Expansions enhance and add to the classic simulation series in all sorts of ways, adding new areas, new gameplay mechanics, new items, and new ways to torture your tiny people to The Sims 4. Our team of The Sims 4 obsessives has poured its hundreds, probably thousands, of hours of Sims playtime into ranking the very best Sims 4 expansions the series has to offer, based on content, satisfaction, and good old fashioned fun. The Sims 4 Cottage Living Expansion due out in July and adding the much anticipated farming this list could change, but now, here are the best Sims 4 expansions.
10. Get Together
Available on: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Get Together offers a new way of socializing your Sims, with a Clubs feature that lets you set up get-togethers amongst like-minded people. Maybe you're a part of the Paragons, who love fashion, or the Upper Crusts, who are a bunch of foodies - you'll bond with whoever you choose to hang out with, getting social boosts and secret handshakes the more you chill together. There's also the addition of DJ and dancing skills, which make for some seriously fun parties, and foosball, darts, and other party games that keep things lively. Windenburg is a lovely, German-inspired town with a public pool that's reminiscent of party-friendly cities like Berlin. It may be a little light on the feature side when held up against some of the newer expansion packs, but Get Together is an essential for Sims who like to party.
9. Island Living
Available on: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Island Living lets you take your Sim away from the stress of their regular lives to Sulani, a beautiful island paradise where they can live completely off the grid. Island Living truly gives your Sim a taste of the island life - you can pal around with dolphins, laze about on the beach, or become a dang mermaid. There are some beautiful build items included in this expansion and great Create-A-Sim objects that really embrace the Polynesian culture that inspired it. Island Living offers a very different style of gameplay, with a more relaxing and laid-back vibe that doesn't require your Sim to constantly be working hard and stressing out. There are waterfalls, beaches, jet skis, and beautiful festivals put on by the locals. It's a great pack, albeit one that may start to feel a bit aimless after a while. Maybe we're just bad at relaxing...
8. City Living
Available on: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
The core of City Living is the city itself - San Myshuno, a beautiful, bustling city that gives you a chance to rent apartments - which isn't possible without this expansion (or Eco Lifestyle). Naturally, renting an apartment comes with all the side effects of apartment living like cockroaches and plumbing problems which makes for some seriously fun gameplay. San Myshuno, just like any other city, offers unique cultural experiences like themed festivals, food stalls, and karaoke bars. It's a fun world to hang out in, and if you're a builder it's a fun challenge to try and renovate a small apartment space. City Living also adds work-from-home careers Social Media Influencer and Critic, which still feel contemporary and relevant years after its release. There's no other Sims 4 world like San Myshuno, so it's a great option for those who love city gameplay.
7. Discover University
Available on: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Hard to imagine where the Sims 4 developers went to college, but it seems to have been relatively free of frat boy hazing deaths. Sending your sim to college is a serious undertaking, but will throw plenty of new gameplay mechanics at you as a reward. First, you'll need to decide if they want to attend the University of Britechester or the more modern Foxbury Institute, apply, take out a loan, and then decide where to live. Once you're in it's a mad rush of classes like robotics and villainy, trying to make your dorm room feel like home, and... joining a college cult by leaving cupcakes in front of a statue? It's intense to juggle all the requirements and keep your sim happy at college, but you can't put a price on a good education. (Though this expansion costs $39.99.)
6. Eco Lifestyle
Available on: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Eco Lifestyle is an expansion pack that tasks you with paying attention to how your Sims are living, which adds a really interesting layer to gameplay. How much electricity does your Sim use, and how economically conscious is that long, contemplative shower they take every day? Eco Lifestyle introduces an Eco Footprint mechanic to all the Sims 4 worlds, where gameplay choices affect the state of the world - like adding smog to more pollution-ridden places, or beautiful clear water to those areas that are more eco-conscious. There's a new Neighborhood Action Plan feature, which helps your neighborhoods feel more intertwined, as the town can vote on things like Eco-Friendly Appliances, which offers extra Handiness skill and Influence for fixing appliances or upgrading them to more green ones. Of course, there are also Neighborhood Action Plans like We Wear Bags, which means your fellow townsfolk will wander around with brown paper bags on their heads…The Sims 4 loves some absurdity, that's for sure.
5. Get To Work
Available on: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Making your sim a wage slave in Get To Work is way more fulfilling than your real life career. This expansion adds the doctor, detective, and scientist careers to your options, and allows you to control your little person as they go about their work day, solving crime or saving lives. For more independent types, there's the option to build, own and manage a bunch of different retail businesses, and there are new skills that can be used as a side hustle, like baking and photography. Sure, eventually ticking off all the tasks your sims need to do during their work day might start to feel too much like your real job, but at least here you can just use the money cheat when you quit and storm out.
4. Snowy Escape
Available on: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Mt. Komorebi is a beautiful, Japanese-inspired world that brings some much-needed diversity to the Sims expansion packs, which are often based on American or European cities. It's easily a top contender for best Sims 4 expansion packs, and it ranks highly because of how much fun is crammed into this pack. Snowy Escape brings a host of snow sports and activities including rock climbing, sledding, snowboarding, skiing, and hiking. But it's not just the snow-related activities that make this pack beautiful - there's relaxing onsen springs, the addition of a hot pot, and absolutely breathtaking Japanese-inspired decor. It's so much fun building a home with shoji windows, tatami mats, and other minimalist design pieces - it really brings a contemporary feel to building in the Sims 4. Snowy Escape even adds the ability to take your shoes off upon entering a home, a lovely nod to the culture from which it draws inspiration.
3. Get Famous
Available on: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Get Famous is one of the top three best sims expansions because it not only captures the cutthroat Kardashian hunger for notoriety, but it's one of those additions that affects everything your sim does. Gotta pee? Post on social media while you're in the bathroom. Need to be social? Stalk a celebrity at the local bar in the new location, Del Sol Valley. Need some simoleons? Start a new career as an influencer or a live streamer. Taking your sim to set as an actor is a fun way to get paid and get famous, and you'll unlock perks (and more negative quirks) by clawing your way from the Z-list to A-list. Also, this expansion introduces the solid-gold toilet option, which is reason enough to buy it.
2. Seasons
Available on: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Finally your sim can celebrate Christmas - or Winterfest - and a bunch of other seasonal holidays. This is one of the best Sims expansions for adding variety to your sim's life cycle, with regular events and ever-changing weather that can make your sim happier - or, if you're not careful, frozen to death in an evening gown because you got distracted making snow angels at a party. Between decorating the house for different holidays, flirting with Father Winter, trying out the new gardening career and picking out your winter outfit, this is one expansion that will keep you busy.
1. Cats and Dogs
Available on: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Do we really need to explain why Cats & Dogs is one of the best Sims expansion packs? You can have cats and dogs. That's it, that's the reasoning. The Sims 4 goes above and beyond with this pets pack, offering you a chance to Create a Pet, choosing from a variety of dog and cat breeds and customizing them as much as you'd like. Oh, and you can put them in adorable outfits, as if this wasn't already overwhelmingly cute. Sims can build long-lasting bonds with their pets based on their daily interaction, and each pet has a unique personality. I currently have a dog that is worryingly obsessed with my refrigerator, for instance. You can also become a vet and run a clinic in Cats & Dogs, helping the sickly animals from Brindleton Bay feel better. This pack is amazing, and a must-have for animal lovers.
Sims 4 cheats | Best Sims 4 mods | How to get started in The Sims 4 | How to fill out reports in The Sims 4 | How to turn furniture in The Sims 4 | How to age up a toddler in The Sims 4 | How to get more money in The Sims 4 | Sims 4 multiplayer | The Sims 4 relationship cheats | The Sims 4 skill cheats | The Sims 4 free build cheat | The Sims 4 career cheats
