The Sims 4 has helped me cope with quarantine, but I've been a fan of the series since I was young. In these games, you design a person, build them a house, and then take care of their every need. You can get your dream job and become a rocket scientist, make friends (or enemies), and even cheat your way to riches.
In it, I can live any kind of life, and if I'm ever tight on cash, a simple motherlode cheat code (or three) remedies the issue. With thousands of hours logged, I've yet to tire of the game—largely thanks to the huge library of add-ons.
See, The Sims 4 is awesome, but there's a catch. The base game is sometimes as cheap as $5, and $40 at most. But that’s before the add-ons. With nine Expansion Packs, eight Game Packs, and 17 Stuff Packs available, it can cost you as much as $700 to get all the extra things. That's as much as a brand-new iPhone, a laptop, or the beginnings of a great savings account. It's all pretty tempting, but you don't need all that downloadable content (DLC) for The Sims 4.
Below, I will go through every piece of DLC in the game. (I've tried them all!) First, I'll give an overview of my favorite $40 Expansion Packs and others I think you can skip. I'll do the same for all the $20 Game Packs available, which add a mix of features and items. And last are the $10 Stuff Packs, which add themed items for your house and Sims. The links for each pack go to PC/Mac redemption codes you can buy and enter into EA's Origin game store.
Updated November 2020: We added Snowy Escape and Journey to Batuu to our rankings.
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Our Fave Expansion Packs
Photograph: OriginExpansion Packs are the most feature-rich DLC, and that's why they usually cost $40 a piece. They change how you play. Each expansion adds a new world where your Sims can live, at least one new activity, new objects and venues, new items for your Sims, new household items, and things like new traits, careers, or skills.
If you're looking to max out your Sims 4 experience without overwhelming yourself with an excess of expansions and add-ons, these are the essentials that every dedicated player should have. They perfectly enrich gameplay while keeping things manageable.
