Realistic The Sims competitor inZOI already has 86% "Very Positive" reviews on Steam as fans praise its visuals and lack of paid DLC

inZOI Character Studio screenshot showing a young woman with short black/pink hair, black cat-like ears, and a black blouse with a bowtie — (Image credit: Krafton)

The early-access release of Sims competitor inZOI is finally here, and while not all of its critic reviews were full of glowing praise, it certainly appears to be a hit so far on Steam.

At the time of writing, inZOI has accumulated over 2,300 reviews on Steam, 86% of which are positive. Overall, that makes for a "Very Positive" rating, with players praising the visuals and the fact that it's a "life sim game without $1,000+ DLC to experience the full game" – even if you love The Sims 4, you can't deny that the cost of its DLC really adds up. Others have also been sharing the highlights of their Zois' lives so far.

"I met a girl in the park. We joked, we hugged, we were engaged within an hour of our first date and then I got a text while I was asleep informing me that she died. 10/10 no notes," one writes. "Met a girl, she was cute, we became interested in each other, and even kissed on the first meet. Got a text the next day letting me know the owner of that phone has passed away. I'll never see her again. I love this game," says another. There's, uh, a bit of a theme here.

To say that it's midday on a weekday, inZOI is also doing really well when it comes to its concurrent player count. It accumulated 60,726 players a couple of hours after launch according to SteamDB, but it's just hit a new peak of 66,858 simultaneous players. While it hasn't reached the same heights as The Sims 4, which reached 96,328 concurrent players on Steam when it went free-to-play in 2022, we can almost certainly expect inZOI's peak to rise over the weekend as more people get the chance to play.

Its popularity hasn't come as a surprise – after all, it previously dethroned Hollow Knight: Silksong to become the most wishlisted game on Steam. The simulation game's director knows that inZOI has a long way to go before it can truly rival its biggest competitor in The Sims, though – Hyungjun 'Kjun' Kim previously told PCGamesN that "The Sims is an incredible game, and I don't think inZOI is anywhere near comparable – at least not yet."

Being an early-access game, this is just the start for inZOI – we'll have to stay tuned to see where it goes from here.

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I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.

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