It's no mystery, especially after the game has been free to play for a couple years, that the lifeblood of playing The Sims 4 is its expansions - the base game is fine enough, but you'll always end up wanting more. And in the last decade, they've given us everything from weather to the supernatural.
But which expansions for The Sims 4 feel the most essential to my everyday life? As someone who's made herself in the Sims a time or two in her younger years, I'm no stranger to living with these expansions, so let's see what living is like.
Updated on February 21, 2026: We've had a handful more packs come out since I originally ranked the best Sims 4 packs as they are for everyday real life use, so I'm back to update my ranking to reflect those additions and find a place for six extra entries in my list.
21 Enchanted By Nature
Wouldn't It Be Magical, Though?
Given that fairies are unfortunately not real (at least to my knowledge), I’ve got to stick this one in last place. I know we’ve got a lot of natural elements added to the game with this – a natural lifestyle and tons of beautiful scenery – but with the main draw being earning your wings, it’s earned its spot.
More Personality: Best Mods To Add New Traits In The Sims 4
For when three of the default traits in CAS just aren't enough.
Plus, I’m not really a very outdoorsy person, anyway. Even if I did strip it down to just the nature, I’m firmly of the opinion that mankind has been working towards air conditioning and walls our entire existence.
20 Royalty & Legacy
Tragically, I Am A Commoner
I've been playing The Sims games since the very first PC title back in the early 2000s as a creative kid who loved using dollhouse games to tell all kinds of stories, so to say I've seen my share of The Sims spin-offs is an understatement. As such, I've got a bit of a nostalgic soft spot for The Sims Medieval. I've been excited about the idea of a nobility pack for a decade and a half now.
I just can't say I use this pack in my own life because I am tragically not royalty, and as such, I'll need to place it toward the bottom of the list. Royalty exists, though, demonstrably in the real world, so it edges out Enchanted by Nature just a bit, even if finding out I'm a princess suddenly now that I'm in my 30s feels equally farfetched.
19 Horse Ranch
Manure? No Thanks...
Before Enchanted by Nature dropped in early July 2025, though, Horse Ranch would easily have been handed the reins for my last-place pick. I do not enjoy sweating, or bugs, or poop smells, or backbreaking manual labor – horse ownership is simply not in my cards in real life.
I did enjoy the pack for what it was worth, though – I tore Umber Grove from his family and made him focus on horse training – but I’m not much a cowgirl myself. The only horses I’ve ever ridden were pony rides as a child, and I don’t know that you could force me onto one as an adult. While I do enjoy a good nectar from time to time, I can skip it if I need to be a farmhand to get it.
18 Snowy Escape
Actually, Catch Me Inside, How About That?
I grew up in Western New York only 15 minutes from Lake Ontario with Lake Erie not too far out to serve up a winter weather doozy for half the year, in a city my grandfather lovingly referred to as “the armpit of America.” I’ve gotten on the bus to school when the snow was to my hips despite the superstition that wearing your pajamas backwards would lead to a snow day.
Living As A Sim: Things In The Sims 4 That Didn't Work Out For Me In Real Life
I tried these things I learned from The Sims 4 irl, and it didn't work out so well.
I know how to handle myself in the snow, but do I enjoy it? Not particularly. Now that I work from home, winter is a lot better, but you would never catch me dead out on the slopes of Mt. Komorebi even if I did live nearby. Though the hot springs do sound glorious, and I do live where it's winter for almost half the year, I don’t like snow enough to live where it happens almost all the time.
17 Adventure Awaits
And It Can Keep Waiting
As a child, I was thoroughly involved in camps and after-school programs that felt almost like it, what with councilors that felt so mature back then but who I now realize were probably in high school. I did the crafts, I made the friendship bracelets, I did the sleepaways, I did the archery - I did it all.
Now, though, I'm much older, and the thought of being sent to summer camp kills me inside. I'm not outdoorsy in any way, and the thought of sleeping in the woods in a tent full of children ahead of a day packed with activities just sounds exhausting.
16 Eco Lifestyle
Neighborhood Action Plans Can Go Right Away
Listen, I’m all for trying to be more mindful about our footprint – I recycle, mind my water use, decline plastic straws, all the other things a singular person can do to help the planet while corporations spew toxic trash into the air – but Eco Lifestyle offers a lot of things I’m not wild about.
I love saving money and being sustainable, but you’ll never see me dumpster diving. Also, if my neighbor showed up to my door to tell me I can cheat on my partner without him getting jealous but that I cannot use the stove today, I may justr enact a Neighborhood Brawl right then and there.
15 Island Living
I Love The Beach But The Beach Doesn't Love Me
I know I dinged Enchanted by Nature for having fairies, but I’m much more likely to end up on a beach with or without the promise of mermaids than I am to end up in a forested area like Innisgreen, so the same restriction will not be applying to Island Living.
After Playing The Sims 4 For A Decade, Here's What I Still Want To See In The Game
If EA is continuing support for The Sims 4, here's what I'd like to see as a day-one player.
Beaches are great. If living seaside weren’t so expensive, and I weren’t so pale that the only concealer shade lighter than mine in the brand I use is literal white to use as eyeshadow base, I’d love to live in Sulani – working from home would be so much nicer if the ocean were right outside my window.
14 City Living
More Like City Visiting
Despite growing up in the suburbs of a mid-sized city, I swore I wanted to live in a major metropolitan area when I grew up. Then I grew up and actually began visiting major cities and began grasping how crowded and expensive they can be, and realized that living there might not be my cup of tea.
Still, though, I do love going to these places. I've gone to the nearest major city dozens of times in my adulthood for this and that - festivals of all sorts, karaoke, dive bars, and more. Despite not living there myself, I still find myself in San Myshuno in real life as often as I find myself in real-world cities.
13 Cottage Living
I Love The Cozy Cow Town Haven
When I say I grew up in the suburbs, I mean my graduating class had about 300 students but we couldn’t open the windows in the high school during the warmer summer months because of all the farms nearby spreading manure. My little cow town of a hometown feels enough like Henford-on-Bagley to feel familiar.
I also really enjoy cooking with other people, sharing recipes and time and a meal at the end, so the option to start cooking together in this pack would be pretty special to me as we dive into the things I’m actively looking for in packs IRL.
12 Get To Work
I Don't Trust Me To Make Medical Decisions For Strangers
Before I became a writer for a living, I wanted to open my own bakery. I worked in one for seven years, decorating cakes and making breads, and sometimes I do still yearn to go back to a life of coming home smelling like sugar and sweat again instead of what I do now.
The Sims 4: Every Life Stage And How Long They Last
We take a look at the new lifespan of Sims after the infant update.
That said, I can't put Get to Work any higher than this just because of the Baking skill and my fond memories of "running a bakery" back in the day when this pack first came out, since I'm wildly unqualified for all the other Work they suggest I try and Get to. You want me to be a doctor, detective, or scientist? No thanks.