Highlights

• The Sims 4 has had 14 expansion packs, each offering new features like pets, careers, lifestyles, and extreme weather.
• Some packs, like Get To Work, introduced interactive careers and aliens, while others like High School Years focused on teen experiences.
• Highlights include the versatile club system in Get Together, snowy sports in Snowy Escape, and university life in Discover University.

Since the release of The Sims 4, players have seen 14 different expansion packs, covering a range of topics and adding various new features to the game. Each one brings something new to the table, with focuses including pets, new careers, different lifestyles, and, of course, extreme weather conditions.

It’s not just things like new Create-a-Sim and build mode items that The Sims 4‘s expansion packs bring with them though, but also new gameplay mechanics, and, in some cases, even brand-new worlds. But which ones offer the best value for money and do some expansions add more to the game than others? Well, here, those questions are answered and all of The Sims 4 expansion packs are ranked.

Updated April 27, 2024, by Ashely Claudino: The Sims 4 is an ever-growing game, and despite the fact that it came out nearly a decade ago, it continues to receive more and more DLC packs. For gamers wondering what’s the best expansion pack in The Sims 4, this list contains even more entries thanks to the recent release of the For Rent pack.

15 Get To Work

Main Themes: Active Careers, Aliens

• Release date: March, 2015

Get To Work is the earliest expansion and it shows. The main focus of this pack is interactive careers. It introduces a doctor, detective, and scientist career. While they are fun to play, and the concept of following one’s sims to work was unique at this point, they have struggled to remain enjoyable. The detective career, in particular, was incredibly glitchy, which meant many players struggled to progress. While some of these bugs have been patched, others still remain in the game.

The pack also included the first occult Sims in The Sims 4, aliens, as well as the ability to run a retail store. Later attempts at occult sims have revealed flaws in the way aliens were implemented, which takes a little shine off them. Retail stores have improved over time, with extra things to make and sell, but they have also been superseded in many ways by the introduction of yard tables. The key difference is that the yard sale tables allow sims to sell their items easily without the hassle of owning a separate lot and store.

14 High School Years

Main Themes: High School, Teen Activities & Hobbies

Released in July of 2022, The Sims 4 High School Years does exactly what it says on the tin. It focuses heavily on fleshing out the teen Sim experience, allowing players to control their Sims while they’re at high school in much the same way that the Get to Work and Get Famous do with adult Sims while they are at work. Given that those two rank among the very worst Sims 4 expansion packs, it should come as little surprise to learn that High School Years doesn’t really provide players with too much to write home about either.

To its credit, Copperdale is far from a bad world, and some of the Build/Buy items included with the expansion do an excellent job of capturing the teen vibe. Likewise, some of the new Create-a-Sim options in High School Years are also pretty decent, though aren’t quite enough to fully justify the price of admission. That said, for hardcore fans of the series, younger players, or those interested in reliving their own high school vicariously through their Sim, it may be worth a look.

13 Get Famous

Main Themes: Fame & Acting

• Release date: November, 2018

Many players had high hopes for Get Famous but it can be a polarizing pack. The world of Del Sol Valley is beautiful but is also very small and feels limiting. The game also introduced interactive acting and content creation careers as well as a fame system. The fame system is slightly erratic at times and can be annoying. While the interactive career is fun at first, it can quickly lose its shine as players repeat the same jobs over and over again.

There are also numerous high-end expensive items with this pack. While it’s fun to build an opulent mansion, their use in most normal builds is limited. It does have some quirky features though, including the money vault, but for day-to-day gameplay, unless players are very much into the fame system, this pack is unlikely to see much use.

12 Get Together

Main Themes: Social Clubs, Group Activities

• Release date: December, 2015

The strongest features of Get Together are the club system and the beautiful world of Windenburg. The club system is one of the most versatile and underused systems in the game. It allows players to form groups of sims and set club goals. This means they can gather up to 8 sims in one place by calling a meeting. It’s also possible to set the dress code and decide which activities and behavior will be encouraged or discouraged.

There are so many uses for clubs, including boosting social needs, building skills and even calling sims to a secret underground basement, where they will spend eternity painting masterpieces. Get Together is a great pack and often underrated but earns its place here due to the fact that many of its features are often not used for regular gameplay unless players utilize the clubs. Windenburg, however, remains one of the very best worlds in the game, as well as the largest.

11 Snowy Escape

Main Themes: Holiday Escape, Japanese Culture

• Release date: November, 2020

The Snowy Escape expansion was released in late 2020 and is built around winter snowsports including snowboarding, skiing, and sledding. It also includes Mt. Komorebi, a Japanese mountain inspired by Mount Fuji as well as several new types of wintery weather. For those wondering, players don’t need to have Seasons installed to experience the latter.

As well as winter sports, the pack also provides players with the Salaryperson career as well as several other Japan-inspired elements including items, lot assignments, and music. For those who love the holiday season or simply enjoy learning more about Japanese culture, Snowy Escape is a solid pick.

10 Cats & Dogs

Main Themes: Household Pets

• Release date: November, 2017

The Cats & Dogs expansion introduces four-legged fur friends into the game. Its biggest addition is the cats and dogs themselves, though players can also join the new interactive Veterinary career, which sees them run a veterinary clinic and live in Brindleton Bay; one of many players’ favorite worlds.

The cats and dogs themselves are really quite adorable and have great customization options to boot; something that will no doubt be appealing to animal-loving players. While this is certainly a solid expansion though, anyone who doesn’t really want a pet may want to take give it a miss. The world is beautiful and the catalog items are versatile, but the furry friends are definitely the main attraction here.

9 Horse Ranch

Main Themes: Horses, Ranch Life

Even though many fans had been hoping for a horse-related pack for a while before it was announced, it was actually one of the expansions that took the longest to be released. The Horse Ranch expansion only went live in the summer of 2023, nearly nine years after The Sims 4 base game.

This pack added horses, mini sheep, and mini goats to The Sims 4. Unfortunately, the small animals are more of an extra, but the horses are quite complex creatures. The Horse Ranch Create-a-Sim menu is quite extensive, and it has nearly limitless customization options. There are a lot of gameplay features that players can explore; there are four horse skills, two human skills, and a whole bunch of ranch-related activities to indulge in. And, in a way, taking care of foals and horses in The Sims 4 feels much more in-depth compared to pets from the Cats & Dogs expansion pack.

8 For Rent

Main Themes: Rental Units, Property Management

• Release date: December, 2023

The For Rent expansion pack received mixed feedback from the community when it was first release due to a series of glitches, but the developers have been working hard to fix it and improve it with each patch. Besides this hiccup in the road, it’s a great pack that adds fundamental features to The Sims 4. Like the Seasons pack, it brings mechanics to the table that will be hard to live without once players have had the opportunity to experience them.

Players who enjoy management games can roleplay a landlord, taking care of their rental units. Whereas fans who prefer to play legacy challenges can incorporate residential rental lot types to their gameplay to keep family closeby. On top of this, it adds tons of Create-a-Sim and Build Mode content to the table as well.

7 City Living

Main Themes: Apartment Life, Modern Living, City Exploration & Activities

• Release date: November, 2016

The City Living expansion brought the additions of apartments, work-from-home careers, festivals, and the city of San Myshuno. Each of these can have a drastic effect on a player’s gameplay. The apartment system allows players to pay rent to live in an apartment, paying upfront only for the furniture. This adds a new element to the game, especially for those who only use the lot traits to live in a fixer-upper home. It can also make a Sim’s starter capital go much further.

City Living’s work-from-home careers, Critic and Social Media Influencer, have also stayed relevant for longer than other careers. While all interactive careers can be repetitive, these offer a few nice perks and fit in well with life in the city. Even if players choose to venture away from the city, the food stalls, festivals, and community lots make it a great place to visit for a change of pace.

6 Cottage Living

Main Themes: Outdoor Animals, Farming, Cottage Life

The “Living” packs may not be to everybody’s tastes, but they do provide players with plenty of bang for their buck when compared to some of the other expansions. 2021’s Cottage Living is certainly no exception, bringing with it a new world that was inspired by the UK countryside as well as numerous animals, objects, and traits.

Those looking for a quiet life with no alarms and no surprises will love what Henford-on-Bagley has to offer, as too will nature and animal lovers. Players can indulge all of their naturistic desires if they wish, while also getting to know some of the many new NPCs like Agatha and Agnes Crumplebottom and the Chopra family.

5 Discover University

Main Themes: University Degrees, Young Adult Life

• Release date: November, 2019

Discover University is arguably one of the strongest packs we’ve seen in The Sims 4. The pack is tailored toward the entire experience of University life and as such includes a huge amount of detail. Players can take out loans, live on or off campus, join clubs, and participate in college events. While classes aren’t interactive, players do have a lot of control over their Sims’ timetables and there are extra work-based activities to balance too.

The gameplay is expansive in this pack, with many new activities to engage in on campus. Build and Buy is limited but solid and the Create-a-Sim items are very versatile. Overall, the pack offers an amazing experience for anyone who loves student-life gameplay.

4 Growing Together

Main Themes: Family Life, Growing Up & Growing Old

• Release date: March, 2023

Despite releasing almost a full decade on from the base version of the game Growing Together remains a lot of fun and stays true to the core values of the series. It focuses on the enjoyment that can be derived from raising a Sim from childhood to old age, introducing plenty of great new Create a Sim and Build Mode items to help further enrich the experience. It also brings with it the bustling town of San Sequoia and the influential Robles family.

The expansion places much more of an emphasis on choices, with certain milestones and decisions helping to change a Sim’s personality and shape who they really are as a person and how they react to events. The way that Sims interact with one another has also been completely revamped, with each Sim given preferences that can determine how socially compatible they are with those they meet.

3 Seasons

Main Themes: Seasonal Activities, Holidays & Events, Weather Changes

As with other Sims games, Seasons is the game-defining expansion. While it doesn’t come with a new world, it does add so much to gameplay across the board that it deserves the top spot. Alongside seasons and weather, players also see the introduction of the in-game calendar, which allows them to schedule a wide range of events and celebrate seasonal holidays. The addition of holiday traditions, decorations, and other pop-up events rounds out this pack.

Adding Seasons is the biggest change across the game that players will ever see in The Sims 4 and adds a new depth to every home in every neighborhood. It also allows more realistic gameplay in terms of being able to add and plan regular events, including birthday parties. This is also the expansion which is the most general, adding new features that have a wide range of uses and implications.

2 Eco Lifestyle

Main Themes: Sustainability, Renewability

Eco Lifestyle was an unexpected theme that had many players skeptical at first. However, as it’s been explored simmers have discovered that it’s far more versatile than expected. It offers several different ways to affect worlds, including eco footprints and action plans.

Eco footprints allow players to change the world into a green area full of beauty or plunge it into industrial smog. The pack also adds green energy, a new career, fabrication, candle-making skills, evolving community, and so much more. It was a surprise that was well-received, pulling numerous small features together into a well-rounded expansion.

1 Island Living

Main Themes: Beach Life, Island Activities

Island Living is another polarizing pack and offers an entirely new way of living on the island of Sulani. There are new part-time careers, new events, and a new vibe, which includes friendlier neighbors and some stunning views. There are also a lot of small additions in the pack, including swimming, diving, odd jobs, sailing, sunbathing, and sandcastle building.

The island itself evolves over time, linking with the new Conservationist career and allowing players to change their surroundings. Overall, the pack offers new ways to play and unique ways to build, something which is rare in The Sims 4. For those who want a new way to play and a new cultural experience, the Island Living pack is, therefore, an excellent choice and arguably the best Sims 4 expansion.