The Sims 4 player count is about to get much, much bigger

pcgamesn.com:

The Sims 4 player count has grown slowly this year, but that’s about to change. EA’s popular life game will be going free-to-play October 18, and that means The Sims community will be getting a massive influx of new players overnight – and likely see explosive growth for some time after that.

Across all platforms, The Sims 4 had seen 30 million players by the summer of 2020, nearly six years after it launched. That figure grew to more than 33 million by the end of 2020, which was also the year of The Sims 4 Steam release.

On Steam, its numbers have steadily grown since then, with its concurrent player count peaking in February this year during a free weekend promotion. That weekend saw the highest-ever number of concurrent players in The Sims 4 on Steam, peaking at an all-time record of 36,166.

That free Steam weekend appears to have boosted The Sims 4’s player count long term, and while SteamDB indicates that the concurrent total has never again reached that February high, there were enough new players attracted during the promotion to raise the average for the rest of the year.

Of course, only a portion of The Sims 4 players are logging in on Steam. Many more use EA’s Origin launcher, which will soon be replaced by the slicker, newer EA App. There are countless more players on PlayStation and Xbox consoles.

Just how much all those player counts will expand when The Sims 4 goes free to play October 18 is still anyone’s guess – but we won’t have to wait long. The Sims 5 release date speculation is all the rage right now, so we’re hoping for some news about that in the near-term too.