how many sims do you play?

I play in rotation over 33 households and they range from 1-8

I play rotation, so everywhere from one to eight. In bigger households I spend a lot of time paused so I can go around and keep everybody on task, but lots of times I'm just focused on one or two Sims of that house at a particular time, and I let the other household members do what they want. TS4 Sims are pretty good at taking care of themselves as long as everybody's on the same lot.

I'm the same with the several rotational players here, households spanning from 1-8. Recently, several of my 8 person households have my elders dropping like flies, so the average of sims in my rotational houses are about 5-6.

I never really stay playing with only 1 sim. It gets too boring for me, especially if there aren't any children around. By minimum, I tend to feel more at ease with at least 3 sims in a house. I like 5 person households, too. Sometimes having too many gets overwhelming, which is when I usually rotate to my 1 sim houses. :)

1 or 2 is my norm. Usually start with one and play on slow and enjoy it. With 2 I can do the same thing.
I play groups less often and usually end up playing in the same patterns. I have a main sim and the rest kind of do their thing with light steering now and then. The club system has opened that up for me a bit.. because I can keep them on a schedule if I want. It's fun for awhile.
If I play 8 it's with a challenge, story or deviant play in mind. It's short lived usually.

I play in rotation as well. I'm playing 6 households and each house hold has 2-8 sims. All of the households are related in some way though, which makes it pretty fun.

I usually have three of four save games that I play in turn. One I play a single runaway teen, one has 8 sims and I'm on generation 8 as well, one save file has 2 YA and their first child and the last 'current' save file as a single YA but in this one I have aging off.
I was playing another save file where I was playing rotationally but it just became too messy with all the game assigned 'lovers' so I've got that file saved on my desktop at the moment but in the rotations I had households ranging from a single sim through to 7 sims.

I really enjoy playing with larger households and even the households I start with just one sim always end up full!

I have several 8 sim households and the smallest household I have has two Sims. I also play rotationally, so it depends.

I'm a bit of a micro manager, so I like to play one household only, usually consisting of 4-6 Sims. My typical household is 2 parents and their 2-4 children. I look after them all and ensure they achieve their aspirations as children, however I get a bit overwhelmed when they turn into teens and I generally pick just one of them at this stage to focus on and micro manage (generally the best looking one I won't lie). I will keep an eye on the others and give them a bit of direction (boy/girlfriend, part-time job, keeping up with schoolwork etc) but that would be mostly it.

I usually start with one female sim, with aging off. She usually gets married but doesn't have kids. I use the game to relieve stress, so the last thing I want is an unmanageable household. If I do let her have kids, aging will be on but I'll limit each generation to two kids maximum.

I play rotational, but I have had two households that held 6 (+3 unplayable ghosts) and 7 members at one point. Generally speaking, I find it's easier to play a large household if there are many children/teens in it, because you can always busy them with homework or play. The adults have aspirations and job goals to complete, which tend to need more detail management.