7 Games You Should Play if You Love The Sims

The Sims gives us the satisfaction of building our dream home without the stress that comes with actually renovating or, oof, saving for a deposit. There’s something so relaxing about sitting down to play when you know that all you’re going to be doing is finding the perfect designer lamp for your bedroom. If your favourite part of The Sims is building and decorating a house, then this list is perfect for you. We’ve rounded up the best games like The Sims so you can live out your home ownership fantasies without any of the drama.

Want to pretend you’re flipping a house and turning it into something magical? We’ve got you covered. Building a home from scratch? Yep, that too. What about decorating an entire island community? You bet! Read on to find your next gaming obsession

The Best Games Like The Sims on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC

Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise

The DLC for Animal Crossing: New Horizons tasks you with building and decorating vacation homes for villagers. It’s Animal Crossing without fishing, harvesting fruit, collecting fossils or managing your inventory. In Happy Home Paradise, all you have to worry about is finding furniture and decorations that fit your client’s theme, whether that’s a home that reminds them of an antique cottage, a pizza party, a garden or a space station.

Play Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise on Switch.

House Flipper

House Flipper lets you pretend you’re renovating fixer uppers and selling them for a profit. The houses you buy will be filthy when you first step foot in them, and it’s oddly satisfying to scrub away the dirt and grime. Then the real fun begins! Think the space is just crying out for an open plan living area? Get out the sledgehammer and start swinging. Want to redo the tiles in the bathroom? Replace them with just a few clicks. There’s also a garden-themed DLC that lets you transform desolate gardens into lush outdoor retreats.

Play House Flipper on PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch and PC.

The Tenants

If you combine the building aspects of The Sims with the client management of Happy Home Paradise, you get The Tenants. Build and decorate houses before finding the perfect person to move in. Instead of taking control of the characters in the house, you’ll then have to accommodate your tenant’s requests while also making a profit to grow your rental property empire.

Play The Tenants on PC.

Unpacking

Are you a master builder in The Sims? Flex your interior decorating skills in Unpacking, a wholesome puzzle game that challenges you to find the perfect spot for your belongings. Unlike other games like The Sims, you can’t freely renovate houses in Unpacking — instead, decorating houses is used as a subtle storytelling mechanic. As you sift through boxes containing the minutiae of your character’s life, you learn about what they’re doing at that moment in their life — all while placing, rotating and moving clothes, photos, trophies and books to make the house look nice.

Play Satisfactory on Switch, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC.

Minecraft

Of course, Minecraft had to be on this list! It’s one of the most popular games ever made and entirely focused on building your own worlds. Gather natural resources like wood and stone and use them to craft blocks and items, with the end goal of building, well, whatever you want. For players who want to build without any roadblocks, creative mode gives you an endless supply of resources and freedom to move about the world at will. Survival mode places more emphasis on a realistic wilderness experience, but you still end up building massive structures or entire civilisations. And, adventure mode lets you experience incredible custom maps designed by other players.

Play Minecraft on PS4, Xbox One, Switch, iOS, Android and PC.

Home Design: Caribbean Life

This mobile game lets you design your dream home on a Caribbean island. Perfect, no notes! Pick and choose from furniture and homewares inspired by Pinterest and Ikea collections, and take on interior design jobs for clients who want to live the island life with you.

Play Home Design: Caribbean Life on iOS and Android.

Satisfactory

If The Sims isn’t quite enough for you anymore, it might be time to graduate to Satisfactory. It’s a first-person, open-world game that lets you construct massive factories, with the end goal of building a fully automated production plant and sending the high-tech products off-world. You won’t be building any houses in Satisfactory, but it’s extremely satisfying to expand and optimise your setup. The developers are constantly updating the game with additional cosmetic items and decorating mechanics, for those of you who want to make your factories look pretty as well.

Buy Satisfactory on PC.