While The Sims 4 base game has a decent amount of content to offer, you’ll likely want to expand your experience with some of the many types of DLC the game has available to purchase. The largest DLC type is expansion packs, which deliver major additions to your regular gameplay experience, so you may be wondering how these packs compare to each other and which ones are the best overall.
Best The Sims 4 expansion packs
There are 14 expansion packs to choose from and while most of them are pretty good, some are certainly more worth the hefty $39.99 price than others. Ultimately, choosing which packs to get will always come down to your own personal preference and playstyle, but here is a breakdown of how they stack up and which packs are the best.
14) Get to Work
Get to Work centers around allowing Sims to be more actively involved with work. Active careers can be quite fun, but most Sims players agree that active careers become boring after a while so you likely won’t want to return to these careers for some time after playing with them.
There are three active careers in this pack, but while Scientist and Detective are pretty enjoyable, Doctor is regarded as confusing and difficult by most. Considering this was the first-ever expansion pack to be released, it also feels much emptier than others which is another reason most players rate it the lowest of all.
The retail feature included in this pack is its strongest selling point because it allows players to open any kind of business they choose. This includes clothing stores, bookstores, art galleries, or any other kind of business you can think of.
Aliens are included in this pack but don’t do much beyond simply looking like aliens. Their abilities are extremely lackluster, especially when compared to the powers of other more impressive occults that are available in-game packs like Vampires or Werewolves.
The build/buy assets in this pack are perhaps the worst of any pack because they are all centered around business and work-centric buildings. This makes them really difficult to use outside of an office or workplace context. The same can be said for the create-a-Sim assets, although some of them are a bit more versatile.
13) Get Famous
If fame and the celebrity lifestyle are your thing, then you’ll love Get Famous. This pack is all about the glitz and glamour of life in the spotlight. With Get Famous, players will be able to gain fame through activities like painting, singing, and acting.
As is the case in real life, massive fame also has a downside. The more famous a Sim becomes, the more quirks they will attain. These quirks include things like “Fan” Mail where players will consistently receive junk in the mail or Phone Fanatic where they will want to be on their phone constantly.
Get Famous also comes with the Actor active career. It’s pretty fun, but as is the case with the careers in Get to Work, it does get old after a while. The world in this pack, Del Sol Valley, is a bit of a letdown and the build/buy items are nothing that special. The Create-a-Sim assets are better, but still nothing too impressive.
The biggest issue with this pack is that fame doesn’t fit into the average Sims player’s everyday gameplay. It’s certainly not a bad pack, it’s just not as versatile as other packs and only built for a very specific gameplay style.
12) Island Living
While the world of Sulani in Island Living is one of the most stunning worlds in The Sims 4, everything else about this expansion pack feels shallow. The build/buy and create sim assets are very particular and specific for the theme of the pack, which makes them hard to use outside of this world. Some of the gameplay is fun, like jet skis and boats, but none of it is really that exciting or game-changing.
Mermaids also come in this pack but are one of the least fleshed-out occults and do little beyond swimming with a cool-looking tail. They have a few special abilities, but none of them really do anything that exciting and they are especially lackluster in comparison to other occults like Werewolves, Vampires, and Spellcasters.
The world of Sulani is easily the best part of this pack. While all other assets of this pack are generally a letdown, being able to visit a tropical beach at any time is an amazing option for gameplay that allows players to just spend the day at the beach, rent out a beachside cabin to take a lengthy vacation, or even choose to settle down there forever if they wish to do so.
11) Get Together
Get Together adds the ability for Sims to be more social in their day-to-day lives. Sims can create or join clubs centered around themes, such as the “Avant Gardes” who like to discuss literature and do homework, or the “Garden Gnomes” who love exploring nature.
Windenburg, the world included with this pack, is one of the best The Sims 4 worlds due to its impressive design and expansive size with a total of 27 lots. It features castle ruins, gothic-esque designs, and overall stunning architecture inspired by Germany. The world itself feels full of life and ripe with activities for players to engage in.
Overall, Get Together is a solid pack, but the gameplay it includes generally won’t mesh well into your everyday gameplay and it feels a bit empty beyond the club feature.
10) Discover University
Players looking to expand upon education in Sims will love Discover University. This pack allows all Sims who are young adults or older to attend university and obtain a degree.
Discover University also expands on activities outside of the classroom. Sims can join robotics, soccer, art, debate, and even become a member of a secret society.
The build/buy assets in this pack are some of the best in any pack. They are often described by players as “Ikea-like” because they are simple items usable in nearly any build. The Create-a-Sim items are very strong in this pack because they are modern, realistic, and versatile.
Britechester is the world included in this pack and though it is nice, it’s a small and very college-town-centered world that players probably won’t live in unless they are attending university. So if you’re looking for a pack with a versatile world, Discover University is not the one for you.
The biggest downfall of this pack is a bit of a silly one and is simply that it is almost too realistic. Actually getting through university successfully in The Sims 4 is a chore and requires intense dedication and effort from players; this pack’s biggest fault is that it is too true to life for its own good.
9) Horse Ranch
The latest expansion pack to become playable is Horse Ranch, and although it is a good one, this pack generally won’t mesh well with your everyday gameplay. Horses are absolutely stunning and can be customized beyond your wildest dreams, but it’s tough to actually fit a horse into your household when you only have eight slots to work with and they don’t fit well with most of the worlds beyond Chesnut Ridge.
While it’s tough to integrate the features of this pack into your regular gameplay, many aspects included are great for living a country lifestyle. Nectar-making is super profitable, prairie grass is a great way to find collectibles, and sheep and goats are downright adorable.
Related: How to get goats and sheep in The Sims 4 Horse Ranch Expansion
The stunning world of Chestnut Ridge is also quite surprising since it has both lots of interactive assets and a super impressive Western look and feel. There’s even a hidden Dungeons & Dragons-style cave sure to entertain you for days.
Horse Ranch is an excellent pack for you if you love horses and a more outdoor-oriented gameplay style for your Sims. It meshes extremely well with Cottage Living but will be tough to use if you’re generally mostly interested in a more suburban or city lifestyle for your Sims.
8) Eco Lifestyle
The most surprising pack to be released in The Sims 4 so far is also one of the best. Eco Lifestyle is unlike anything the Sims team has done in past games but is one of the best expansion packs yet.
This pack allows players to have a positive or negative eco-footprint that impacts the environment around them, produce their own electricity and water, use reclaimed materials to create new items, and otherwise live a sustainable lifestyle.
Overall, Eco Lifestyle is quite a fun pack rich with unique gameplay. Dumpster diving is one of the best ways to find collectibles and items to sell and most of this pack is great for enhancing your regular gameplay. However, most players do get pretty annoyed with one gameplay feature called Neighborhood Action Plans (NAPs).
While sometimes a fun gameplay feature, NAPs are a nuisance when you don’t want to play with them because they allow for annoyances like other Sims stealing your items, as is the case with the “Sharing is Caring” NAP, or require players and their neighbors to wear bags on their heads at all times, as is the case with the “We Wear Bags” NAP. You can disable this feature in your settings at any point though and the other gameplay features are much better.
Evergreen Harbor is the world included in this pack and is a popular world among Sims fans due to its industrial and harbor-centric theme as well as the unique ability this world has to develop and change over time. The community also loves the small apartments featured in this world, which many players feel are far more realistic in size than those featured in City Living.
7) Snowy Escape
Mt. Komorebi transports Sims players to a stunning Japanese-inspired snowy world full of festivals and activities. While many other Sims worlds are rather flat, Mt. Komorebi is quite mountainous and layered. The unique shape and style of this world make it a favorite among Sims players.
Snowy Escape adds fun outdoor activities including skiing, snowboarding, sledding, and mountain climbing to The Sims 4. When these activities result in injuries or exhaustion, players can also head to the hot springs to find their zen and recover. Overall, Snowy Escape boasts many activities for players to engage in and is quite versatile for the average Sims player’s gameplay.
6) High School Years
The world of Copperdale comes with High School Years and introduces an active high school “career” for Sims. Copperdale is inspired by worlds from teen-centric dramas in popular culture and features a fun pier complete with an interactable Ferris wheel, a haunted house, and a tunnel of love.
In addition to attending school and paying attention in class, or choosing to skip and pranking others, teen sims can also attend prom, career day, and graduate high school. Teens can also join after-school activities such as cheerleading, football, and computer club.
Sims can also become Simfluencers or streamers through part-time careers. Thrifting is another new feature exclusive to this pack and allows players to find unique clothes and sell outfits they design on the Trendi app.
One of the best gameplay aspects included in this pack is Social Bunny, which is the first truly interactive social media system in The Sims 4. Sims can use it to post about important events, develop friendships, or even flirt to increase romance through the app.
Because this pack and Discover University both center around an educational experience, many within the community heavily compare them. High School Years is the better pack of the two because the build/buy and create a sims assets are extremely unique and detailed, the world is very versatile and usable regardless of if a Sim is attending high school, and the gameplay allows for a break, unlike Discover University.
What also puts this pack above Discover University is that it is built for teen sims, which is a life state that was severely lacking before this pack. Without this pack, teens function no differently from young adults, but with High School Years they are able to be true teens thanks to the environment, items, and many activities built specifically for them.
5) Cottage Living
Players can live out a lifestyle reminiscent of Stardew Valley’s gameplay with Cottage Living. This pack is a favorite among Sims players due to the animal-centric gameplay, cozy farming abilities, and stunning rural world.
This pack adds cows, llamas, chickens, rabbits, and wild birds for players to interact with. Players can also grow massive crops if they tend to their gardens properly.
Once players have grown, raised, or otherwise produced something, they can then submit their products to the Finchwick Fair and potentially win prizes. Henford-on-Bagley is another strong selling point of this pack because it’s a stunning rural, countryside-like world perfect for living a farming lifestyle.
4) City Living
City Living is the only pack in all of The Sims 4 that gives players a bustling city world that feels alive thanks to its rich culture and numerous activities. The world of San Myshuno is a mix of areas like San Francisco, Tokyo, and Los Angeles and boasts a lively and busy feel.
One of the best aspects of this pack is the five festivals that occur on a two-week schedule and repeat after that. Each one offers an opportunity to get your Sims out and although the five festivals stay the same, each one offers a variety of experiences so they never really feel dull or old.
Players can also live in apartments or penthouses in this pack. When living in these buildings, sims will sometimes have to face realistic situations like unfair landlords or noisy neighbors.
City Living is a pack that always feels full of life. It never gets old and there is always something new for sims to do or explore. The world is simply stunning and most Sims players will find that they return to live in the city of San Myshuno repeatedly.
3) Growing Together
I look for versatility and reusability when it comes to expansion packs which is why Growing Together ranks so highly for me. All the features in this pack are dedicated to enhancing your regular gameplay experience which is why it’s so good.
While Growing Together’s features aren’t super obvious and flashy like some other expansion packs are, it’s a ton of subtle features that make this pack great. Your Sims may or may not get along depending on their personalities with the Social Dynamics feature this pack includes, life-defining moments are tracked with the super detailed Milestone system, and your Sims may change their traits or develop new ones over time as they consistently take actions to develop themselves.
As great as the gameplay in this pack is, the world of San Sequoia is mostly an empty, lifeless shell. It looks amazing, but even with the movie theater rabbit hole, there just isn’t much to do. There are so many bodies of water yet none can be swam or fished in and there are no collectibles around which just leaves this world feeling empty overall.
Even though the world included in Growing Together is a letdown, the gameplay in this pack is so strong that it still retains a high spot among expansion packs.
2) Cats and Dogs
Furry friends are one of the best parts of real life and this fact is reflected in Sims’ lives too.
The build/buy items in Cats and Dogs are some of the most versatile in all of The Sims 4. Players who have this pack will find themselves returning to the items over and over again because of how good they are.
Brindleton Bay is also one of the best worlds in The Sims 4. It’s a coastal town that allows players a dreamy beachside home. The Create-a-Sim items in this pack are also pretty nice and versatile.
You can choose to fully customize and create the cat or dog of your dreams, adopt strays off the street, or call the adoption agency and choose from a variety of furry friends. Once you have a pet or multiple pets, you will then need to fully care for your new friend.
Overall, Cats and Dogs is a pack rich with gameplay surrounding the titular animals, a stunning world that is one of the best in all of Sims, and build/buy items players will reuse often.
What’s the best The Sims 4 expansion pack?
1) Seasons
No other expansion pack compares to Seasons as even though it was one of the first additions to release it still remains the best expansion pack overall. This pack adds so much life to the game that it truly feels incomplete without it. In addition to adding weather of all kinds, which includes rain, heatwaves, and snowstorms, Seasons also adds seasonal activities such as creating snow angels or jumping in leaf piles.
Seasons introduces fully optional and customizable holidays like Winterfest, Love Day, and Harvestfest. Players can choose to participate or skip these holidays and also can create new ones of their own. I have additional holidays like Pride and a Big Summer Blowout I celebrate in every Sims game I make and the ability to fully customize or create your own holidays is a really neat addition.
The build/buy and Create-a-Sim items included in this pack are, similar to Cats and Dogs, some of the most usable and versatile of all. The gameplay and features that come with Seasons are also the most flexible and can be used by the widest variety of Sims players since they affect every world.
The singular biggest downside of this expansion pack is that it does not come with a new world while every other expansion pack does. In spite of this, Seasons still manages to claim the top spot on this list because it is utterly game-changing and an absolute necessity for any The Sims 4 player.
Published: Aug 3, 2023 04:00 am