The Sims celebrates 10th birthday

By Ellie Gibson Published 5 February, 2010

More than 125 million copies sold.

The Sims is celebrating ten years since the first instalment in the series was released.

The last decade has seen 125 million Sims games shifted, racking up more than $2.5 billion in revenues. The most recent major instalment, The Sims 3, was released last June. In the first month alone 3.7 million units were sold, a figure which has since risen to 4.5 million.

Downloadable content service The Sims 3 Exchange launched at the same time. Since then nearly 110 million pieces of content have been downloaded.

Why not celebrate the The Sims' 10th birthday by reading our retrospective?

Speaking of 10th birthdays, today marks TEN WHOLE YEARS since Eurogamer editor Tom Bramwell had his first ever review published on the site. (NHL Championship 2000, in case you're wondering). Since then Tom has written more than 13,000 articles, just 10,000 of which were about Mass Effect 2, and generated more than £18 in revenues. Happy 10th birthday, Tom!

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (13) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Bealsy #1 2 years ago

    And I presume 123 million copies sitting on top of a dusty shelf.

  • HermitArcader #2 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • SYS64738 #3 2 years ago

    I always end up watching my Sim (yes I bought these games too) eat, sleep, hit the jacks, go to work. I spend hours without achieving anything spectacular, then realise WAIT A MINUTE I COULD'VE DONE THAT IN REAL LIFE. It's just so... pointless. Still I sometimes feel the urge to come back to it again. It makes me feel really stupid.

  • TheApologist #4 2 years ago

    @Bealsy

    Because *real* games that are 10 years old hardly ever sit on the shelf?

  • RealityCheque #5 2 years ago

    I love playing these games, but then I hit a plateau and just can't be arsed anymore - getting the 15th friend so I can get a tiny promotion when I've already bought everything in the game for my giant blue castle doesn't really seem to be worth the effort.

  • Alterego-X #6 2 years ago

    1,5 years ago it was announced to be at 100 million, and only one last expansion pack to The Sims 2 was released since than, so apparently The Sims 3 main game alone sold more than 20 million.

    PC gaming is dead, right???

  • Bealsy #7 2 years ago

    @TheApologist - my point is that pretty much everybody I know who has ever bought The Sims plays it for a few weeks and is then bored.

  • Alterego-X #8 2 years ago

    @Bealsy:
    Yeah, that explains why the sales are so high even years after the release of a version, when there is no formal advertisement!
    Obviously, people are recommending it to each other even after a long time, because it gets boring so quickly!

    Wait a minute....

    Oh, no, I think word of mouth doesn't work that way!

    BTW, "a few weeks" would probably still be a lot more than for 99% of other games.
    Edited by 3 at 05/02/10 @ 10:16

  • MiniAmin #9 2 years ago

    Happy Birthday Sims!

    This game deserves its recognition. It's the game that introduced so many Mothers/Sisters/Girlfriends/Wives to the idea that gaming is actually pretty cool.
    Edited by 1 at 05/02/10 @ 13:22

  • Murton #10 2 years ago

    The Sims is one of those guilty pleasures that a lot of "core" gamers have. I've played all three of the main Sims games, not extensively you understand but I have played each of them. I get a copy of it, install it and play it nonstop for a couple of days to week at which point I feel I achieved everything I want to and that's it. The games have a lot of pulling power, the sales figures prove that, they just don't seem to hold attention for very long outside of their main fanbase who actually buy up the expansions/DLC.

  • laharl80 #11 2 years ago

    I only played the PS2 version but the sims has to be one of the most tedious experiences its possible for a human being to have.Cleaning up virtual pools of wee?No thanks.The only highlight for me was making my sims gay which was vaguely humorous for about 10 seconds.

  • Bravestinsane #12 2 years ago

    Found this article more interesting when it started talking about Tom

  • metalangel #13 2 years ago

    The Sims: Celebrating ten years of making lesbians.