I am only seeing a few townies spawn

I will post this link to a thread that may help you. I hope that it does help.
No more random townies spawned after midnight? | EA Forums - 8577573

rosemow Thank you for the suggestion, but unfortunately I don’t think it quite fits my situation. I don’t have many sims at all, seeing as the save is brand new, so I highly doubt that culling is the issue. Sims just never seem to spawn to begin with. But thank you!

I've noticed the same thing too, the world's are not as populated as they used to be and it's mostly the same sims in all the worlds. I did wonder if it's because it's my generations save (I did it with science babies and cake aging so my sim has all 26 generations of her family roaming around henford) a lot of the world townie sims have passed on in that save but now I'm rarely seeing her family about either, just her mum. And Bjorn... he's everywhere. 

Thank you, I’m glad I’m not the only one to notice this! And yes, Bjorn is indeed everywhere 🤦‍♂️

I'm starting to think Bjorn is secretly immortal 😂

On my save Sulani seems to be the most empty, there's about three random townie sims in the bar at any given time and my sim already knows them and I hardly see any others roaming around apart from the ones that live in the lots and that's only two families. It's a shame, I like visiting different worlds trying to find new friends for my sim but everywhere seems so void of people. 

Exactly. Many of the sims on any lot at any given time are ones that my sim has already interacted with. Like please Victor Feng, it was one chess game; stop following me! 😭

I haven’t wanted to play for a few days now because I can’t find anyone for my sim to befriend or date. I wanted to start a Legacy Challenge, but in order to create a family, I kind of need a partner sim. 🥲

Same here, looking for a partner for my sim too but want someone new. I only did the science baby thing for the trophy list on PlayStation so didn't really notice the lack of sims, but now I'm actively searching for a husband for her it's really apparent how empty the worlds are. I did consider filling the worlds myself but the time it would take would probably send me mad and I'd know what traits etc they had so it would kinda take the fun out my sim meeting them. 

Victor feng was always in magnolia park during the last event. Maybe him and Bjorn are up to something 😂

Oohh I just thought, I haven't checked neighbourhood story settings on that save maybe I've got it set so no one can move in?? Saying that though my save for building only is a bit sparse too and I know I never even went into that setting there 🤔

I actually did add over two dozen sims to my "Other Neighborhoods" in one save, but never saw them spawn. I turned off the move-in for my neighborhood stories because I didn't want all of the houses to fill up, but I don't think that should affect more sims being created as "Currently Not In World". I also made a brand new save and didn't make any changes to neighborhood stories, or add sims, but I had the same issue. I feel like I'm losing it 😬

Ahh that's a shame, thought the move in thing was our solution. Hats off to you for filling the world yourself, that level of patience is beyond me 😂

I've read a few posts on here about no sims spawning in community lots, there not being anyone at the Vets, bar staff and restaurant staff not turning up. Maybe it's all part of the same bug/issue? The game has no trouble with the named households as you said the Fengs, Fyres etc, the dlc sims I see everywhere just seems to be the world filling npc townies that have all disappeared. 

That's because they all are now hanging out at cemeteries since the Life&Death patch lol.

Seriously though, I have the same issue like you. Only few sims spawn and most always the same ones. Only when I visit my cemeteries, an invasion of sims spawn there from most every pack I own. It's ridiculous.