I'd be really curious to know the player numbers for the Sims 3, because I suspect is larger then anybody suspects.For example, I've noticed on Steam the Sims 3 maintains a constant average between 4000-7000 players DAILY. That might not seem like a lot, but considering steam has over like a million games and the Sims 3 has always been on its top 100 played games DAILY - that is huge. Especially when you have new AAA released games that barely make it on the list for more a then a month.I personally play the Sims 3 via my CD install, but I'm sure a lot of people play it via origin digital install too (maybe 70/30?) since I suspect most Sims 3 players probably bought the game before origin was origin. So based on steam alone, at the very least I'd suspect Sims 3 has probably 10K daily players - thats a lot of people playing a game that is nearly 10 years old! And pretty cool.Personally, especially with the right mods (visual and gameplay) I simple enjoy the Sims 3 more, especially as a story teller.Its too bad the Sims team/EA didn't manage a small Sims 3 team to keep supporting the game as a legacy title.

It is impressive how active this community still is. AHQ gets a lot of TS3 traffic too, much of which pertains to issues with new purchases and installs. So there are a number of people still buying the game for the first time, only a fraction of whom ask for help installing it.A month ago, a problem surfaced with the authentication process between a computer and EA's servers. This only affects new or fresh installs, not existing ones, only those in mac OS, and only players who install just the base game, WA, and/or HELS. (Anyone who installs a newer pack thereby fixes the issue.) The master thread had dozens of posts in a few days; almosr one hundred people clicked the "Me Too" button in the first week. And I'm sure there were more who didn't bother to click or post but still needed a solution.The fact that probably over one hundred people tried to install or reinstall TS3 on macs in just one week really says a lot about the continuing popularity of this game. I'm most grateful though that there are still knowledgeable people around (igazor) who can help the rest of us figure out how to run this game on modern systems, and maybe, if we ask nicely, teach us enough that we learn something about troubleshooting ourselves. Whether EA cares to address TS3 issues or not, the players are still here helping each other out wherever we can, and it's wonderful to be a part of it all.

I agree that there are probably more players than one might think. I just found out one of my co-workers plays Sims3 B)

Agreed.I wish there was a small legacy team to fix some of the bugs they never fixed, and to keep the store updated.

I'm never logged in with the game, so I'm not in the statistics. And I think most "hardcore" Sims 3 players play offline. I'm not surprised at all that Sims 3 is still popular. It's the best game in the series.

There's just a lot of replay value to Sims games, hence why a legacy Sims can still top Steam's charts where a new AAA game won't stay there indefinitely. I do wish it was reflected in TS3 custom content creation though, lol. That community is d e a d and TSRW just gets worse and worse to work with.

Sims 3 player numbers | EA Forums

puzzlezaddict
Hero+
6 years ago
It is impressive how active this community still is. AHQ gets a lot of TS3 traffic too, much of which pertains to issues with new purchases and installs. So there are a number of people still buying the game for the first time, only a fraction of whom ask for help installing it.

A month ago, a problem surfaced with the authentication process between a computer and EA's servers. This only affects new or fresh installs, not existing ones, only those in mac OS, and only players who install just the base game, WA, and/or HELS. (Anyone who installs a newer pack thereby fixes the issue.) The master thread had dozens of posts in a few days; almosr one hundred people clicked the "Me Too" button in the first week. And I'm sure there were more who didn't bother to click or post but still needed a solution.

The fact that probably over one hundred people tried to install or reinstall TS3 on macs in just one week really says a lot about the continuing popularity of this game. I'm most grateful though that there are still knowledgeable people around (igazor) who can help the rest of us figure out how to run this game on modern systems, and maybe, if we ask nicely, teach us enough that we learn something about troubleshooting ourselves. Whether EA cares to address TS3 issues or not, the players are still here helping each other out wherever we can, and it's wonderful to be a part of it all.
Odonata68
6 years ago
I agree that there are probably more players than one might think. I just found out one of my co-workers plays Sims3 B)
graceymanors
Rising Hotshot
6 years ago
Agreed.I wish there was a small legacy team to fix some of the bugs they never fixed, and to keep the store updated.
Cororon
Rising Traveler
6 years ago
I'm never logged in with the game, so I'm not in the statistics. And I think most "hardcore" Sims 3 players play offline. I'm not surprised at all that Sims 3 is still popular. It's the best game in the series.
InfraGreen
6 years ago
There's just a lot of replay value to Sims games, hence why a legacy Sims can still top Steam's charts where a new AAA game won't stay there indefinitely. I do wish it was reflected in TS3 custom content creation though, lol. That community is d e a d and TSRW just gets worse and worse to work with.
astridentanja
6 years ago
I'm one of those invisible Sims 3 players. That is, I don't play through Origin (patch 1.67) nor Steam and I only ever played online when Showtime had just been released and Simport was new.
king_of_simcity
6 years ago
Do more people play TS3 than TS4? That would an interesting answer to an interesting question!
InfraGreen
6 years ago
"king_of_simcity7;c-16826581" wrote:
Do more people play TS3 than TS4? That would an interesting answer to an interesting question!

I'm sorry but there has been no moment where an older Sims title still eclipsed a newer one's popularity. It's obvious in not just stuff like community metrics (forum use, online uploads, etc.) but even asking people/known casual players you see in real life which Sims game they play right now if they do. It's TS4 and I don't think it's just something unusual about where I work or whatever. And there is something to be said with ragequitting TS3 over performance. I love the game but some people (like actual serious simming friends of mine) just didn't want to deal with it any longer, even people who loved TS3.

But I mean it's also just my experience. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The popularity of a game really brought together by player uploads/mods/content matters more than it does for, like, music (so I had to put away that analogy) but in the end...everything has to stand on its own with zero fans or a million.
astridentanja
6 years ago
Playing an old game for many people, especially the ones who love the game, means replaying gameplay they already played so yes, it’s logical a current version will be played more. In fact I’m sometimes under the impression new content is Sims 4’s main charm, the way people keep begging for it because the last addition was 3 whole weeks ago. In fact it’s surprising people keep returning to old versions, not a good sign. This also goes for people who stuck to Sims 2, that was mainly because they weren’t happy with Sims 3.

Ragequitting is an entirely different subject. I see people ragequitting Sims 4 as well by the way, the game isn’t exactly bugless. I never ragequit Sims 3 nor 4 because I never had performance issues.
InfraGreen
6 years ago
I'm not gonna argue this point into the ground and will drop the subject if needed but getting TS3 to run well can take extra money and technical knowledge that a lot of simmers downright don't have. It's easy to think it's worth it when you have a rabid passion for TS3 but passion's always been in the minority...welcome to a casual franchise. I'm just going with responses I've gotten in several communities. Of course I've known ragequitting TS4 players as well or those who otherwise stopped playing, but very few I've known go back to TS3 either. If you can't run TS4 then it's a bad sign (if not guaranteed) for being able to run a more intensive/finicky/poorly optimized game like TS3.