The Sims 4 Expension Packs Ranked
Here's my tier list of the Sims 4 Expansion Packs. Below you will find an explanation for each placement. I tried to be as objective as possible. (EDIT: It's too early to rate Life & Death as of now. It will be added to the ranking in the future.)
S Tier
A Tier
Get Together features Windenburg - the biggest world in the game, with the whooping 27 lots and 26 housed residents who actually know each other - as well as the Clubs. The clubs are highly customizable and come with tons of cross-pack compatibility, making them one of the most fleshed out features in the game. You can join the existing club, or create your own. The clubs allow for all kinds of group activities, making meeting and befriending other sims easier. Purchasable club perks allow for even more customization, among which are bonuses to learning certain skills faster. But that's not all - you can set up all kinds of clubs across your save file, and when you do, you will make your game so much more alive. For example, you could create a book club that has a chance to appear in any library you visit, or a group of kids that play together in parks, or a group of musicians that always practice in lounges. To put it simply - the clubs allow for lots of creativity, can affect the world, and come in handy quite often.
Seasons add, well, seasons and weather to all worlds. Food stalls and skating rinks will appear everywhere as well, making the neighborhoods feel even more alive. Holidays are another feature - they're a fun gameplay addition, and they're customizable, allowing you to delete the existing ones, and create your own, making your calendar feel unique. On top of it, it enhances gardening slightly adding the Flower Arranging skill, the possibility of being a beekeeper, and Patchy - who is a scarecrow who comes to life and helps you maintain your garden. With this pack, plants will bear fruits only in certain seasons. One more thing worth mentioning are the Scouts - new after-school activity for both children and teenagers. Making them earn badges is fun, and they often learn new skills as they do so.
Eco Lifestyle features Evergreen Harbor which is one of the most interesting worlds, as it changes depending on your actions. With this pack, the Build & Buy items will influence the environment, and with the new Eco Footprint mechanic, you can either pollute the neighborhoods or make them green. Another feature, Neighborhood Action Plans, is admittedly best kept turned off, but it does allow you to customize Evergreen Harbor even further. The new lot type, Community Spaces, changes its functionality depending on the community vote. On top of it, the pack is filled with tons of new gameplay objects that allow you to craft your own candles, fizzy juice, and even furniture. Dumpster-diving is another way to obtain all kinds of items. Other new objects include dew collectors, solar panels, wind turbines, and a recycler. With this pack you can live a self-sustained life off-grid, which is really fun. And even if you don't feel like leading this kind of life, those objects still affect environment and give you options to earn money in new unique ways. But what if you don't feel like playing in Evergreen Harbor? Well, here's the best part - this pack adds the Eco Footprint everywhere! That's right, you can pollute any world now! Or, you know, you can make all worlds green, that's cool too.
Cottage Living is the cozy farming pack full of lovely cottagecore items. You can take care of animals such as chickens, cows, llamas, wild rabbits and wild birds. The pack allows your sim to grow giant crops, can foods, cross-stitch, run errands, and participate in the Town Fair. All of that is already quite fun, but where the pack truly shines is the Simple Lot Living Challenge, which you can (and should) apply to any residential lot. With the challenge on, your household won't receive any free ingredients while your sim is cooking. All ingredients will have to be purchased from a grocery stall, gardened, fished, or foraged. It will change the way you play completely, making it more challenging and interesting. Grocery shopping will become required, similarly to the previous installments of the Sims, making you think ahead, especially if your sims don't keep a garden to self-sustain themselves. This lot challenge is also a good companion piece to the off-grid gameplay from Eco Lifestyle.
As much as Tomarang is on the smaller side, the features For Rent brings to the table cannot be overstated. It outclassed City Living by a mile by allowing you to build apartments and experience the pack's gameplay in any world you want. The game will let you have up to 6 rental units per lot (unless you cheat). Since there can be a maximum of 8 sims in one household, this means you could technically house a whopping 48 sims on just one lot, suddenly making every single world feel so much bigger. The pack also allows you to be a landlord, as well as breaking into other people's apartments and houses to steal or blackmail them for their secrets. But let's be real - being creative while building your rental units is where it's at. They could be anything - from the apartment buildings to trailer parks. Maybe you want to rent just a single room, with the rest of the house being shared with other tenants - that's cool too!
Lovestruck feels like a less packed sequel to Growing Together. It fleshes out the romance aspect of the game by adding Attraction (Turn-Ons and Turn-Offs), Romance Satisfaction, Romance Dynamics, Blind Dates, as well as much needed spicy gameplay. The Cupid's Corner app gives you an option to find someone special online. There's also a new date-planning system that allows you to plan the activities for your perfect date. Overall, Lovestruck is just a lot of fun, with a lot of room to make every relationship feel a little different. It also works as a great companion piece to Growing Together, especially once you start messing with the Attraction and Social Compatibility settings and mixing them together.
B Tier
If you've wondered why there isn't any teen-related gameplay in Growing Together, it's because it's all here, in High School Years. Some of the features of this pack feel a little half-baked, but it's so close to being good, I had no choice but put it between tiers A and C.
High School Years focuses entirely on teenagers. It brings the ability to control teens while they're at school, plenty of after-school activities, prom, graduation, career day, two new social media platforms, pranking, crushes, and of course, puberty. On top of it, it features some amusement park rides rabbit holes, and the Thrift and Bubble Tea Store which is a very interesting addition to the existing lot types.
This pack is worth getting as it expands the entire life stage, however some of its features could have been more fleshed-out, which is why I couldn't put it higher.
C Tier
To fully experience Cats & Dogs or Horse Ranch in its entirety you need to choose to have one of those animals in your family, and that's probably not going to happen in every single household you play. You won't even see any stray dogs outside of Brindleton Bay, unless you have a mod. With that being said, if you love animals, and you absolutely can't live without them, there's a lot of fun to have with those packs.
City Living, Island Living and Snowy Escape suffer from a similar problem - the gameplay is contained within the worlds featured in those packs. As long as you're not playing in those worlds, you're not going to experience the pack. (Note: Snowy Escape does bring the Lifestyles feature, but let's be real with ourselves, this feature is really annoying and it's best to have it turned off.) Of course, those worlds are still very interesting and vibrant, each of them coming with their own festivals as well, but if you're not interested in those settings, you won't get too much gameplay outside of them.
Get to Work features three active careers (Scientist, Detective, Doctor), the possibility to own a retail business, and aliens. Get Famous features another active career (Actor), as well as the fame and reputation mechanics. There's a lot of fun to be found in those active careers, but once again, realistically, you will ignore the other features if you're not actively playing the contents of those packs. (Note: Personally, I love the fame mechanic, but I can't put Get Famous higher in the ranking with a clear conscience - Del Sol Valley feels very under-cooked, and the game doesn't give you any tools to stop celebrities and paparazzi from appearing on the community lots. This mod is the only workaround I've found.)
And then there's also Discover University, which I believe was created for the sims with long lifespans only. If you play on a lifespan shorter than that, your sim will age up and die before they graduate, and no, you can't change the length of degrees, unless you have a mod. You also can't take a break to play with other households midway through the university run - the university gameplay keeps going even when you're not looking, and your sim will get bad grades off-screen when you're not controlling them, making this pack very unfriendly to people who like the rotational gameplay. With that being said, the gameplay itself is pretty fun and challenging, and the degrees will affect your career, but you need to fully commit to the run from start to finish, which is a huge let down.
S Tier
Growing Together
The developers cooked with this one - the amount of content given is a little crazy. Focused on the family-related gameplay, Growing Together introduces new gameplay mechanics such as Family Dynamics, Milestones, Social Compatibility, Self-Discovery, Burnouts, Midlife Crisis, Workplace Rivals, Random Layoffs, and Child Confidence. Those mechanics will enhance your overall gameplay and make the game much more interesting. On top of it, children learning to ride bicycles, children losing their teeth, friendship bracelets, treehouses, temporary stay overs, slumber parties, baby showers, family reunions, Recreation Centers, and a movie theater rabbit hole are also part of the pack. If there is one pack you should get, it's probably this one.
A Tier
The packs featured on this tier affect every world or unlock the tools which allow you to enhance the overall gameplay and make it more interesting, no matter the household.
Get Together features Windenburg - the biggest world in the game, with the whooping 27 lots and 26 housed residents who actually know each other - as well as the Clubs. The clubs are highly customizable and come with tons of cross-pack compatibility, making them one of the most fleshed out features in the game. You can join the existing club, or create your own. The clubs allow for all kinds of group activities, making meeting and befriending other sims easier. Purchasable club perks allow for even more customization, among which are bonuses to learning certain skills faster. But that's not all - you can set up all kinds of clubs across your save file, and when you do, you will make your game so much more alive. For example, you could create a book club that has a chance to appear in any library you visit, or a group of kids that play together in parks, or a group of musicians that always practice in lounges. To put it simply - the clubs allow for lots of creativity, can affect the world, and come in handy quite often.
Seasons add, well, seasons and weather to all worlds. Food stalls and skating rinks will appear everywhere as well, making the neighborhoods feel even more alive. Holidays are another feature - they're a fun gameplay addition, and they're customizable, allowing you to delete the existing ones, and create your own, making your calendar feel unique. On top of it, it enhances gardening slightly adding the Flower Arranging skill, the possibility of being a beekeeper, and Patchy - who is a scarecrow who comes to life and helps you maintain your garden. With this pack, plants will bear fruits only in certain seasons. One more thing worth mentioning are the Scouts - new after-school activity for both children and teenagers. Making them earn badges is fun, and they often learn new skills as they do so.
Eco Lifestyle features Evergreen Harbor which is one of the most interesting worlds, as it changes depending on your actions. With this pack, the Build & Buy items will influence the environment, and with the new Eco Footprint mechanic, you can either pollute the neighborhoods or make them green. Another feature, Neighborhood Action Plans, is admittedly best kept turned off, but it does allow you to customize Evergreen Harbor even further. The new lot type, Community Spaces, changes its functionality depending on the community vote. On top of it, the pack is filled with tons of new gameplay objects that allow you to craft your own candles, fizzy juice, and even furniture. Dumpster-diving is another way to obtain all kinds of items. Other new objects include dew collectors, solar panels, wind turbines, and a recycler. With this pack you can live a self-sustained life off-grid, which is really fun. And even if you don't feel like leading this kind of life, those objects still affect environment and give you options to earn money in new unique ways. But what if you don't feel like playing in Evergreen Harbor? Well, here's the best part - this pack adds the Eco Footprint everywhere! That's right, you can pollute any world now! Or, you know, you can make all worlds green, that's cool too.
Cottage Living is the cozy farming pack full of lovely cottagecore items. You can take care of animals such as chickens, cows, llamas, wild rabbits and wild birds. The pack allows your sim to grow giant crops, can foods, cross-stitch, run errands, and participate in the Town Fair. All of that is already quite fun, but where the pack truly shines is the Simple Lot Living Challenge, which you can (and should) apply to any residential lot. With the challenge on, your household won't receive any free ingredients while your sim is cooking. All ingredients will have to be purchased from a grocery stall, gardened, fished, or foraged. It will change the way you play completely, making it more challenging and interesting. Grocery shopping will become required, similarly to the previous installments of the Sims, making you think ahead, especially if your sims don't keep a garden to self-sustain themselves. This lot challenge is also a good companion piece to the off-grid gameplay from Eco Lifestyle.
As much as Tomarang is on the smaller side, the features For Rent brings to the table cannot be overstated. It outclassed City Living by a mile by allowing you to build apartments and experience the pack's gameplay in any world you want. The game will let you have up to 6 rental units per lot (unless you cheat). Since there can be a maximum of 8 sims in one household, this means you could technically house a whopping 48 sims on just one lot, suddenly making every single world feel so much bigger. The pack also allows you to be a landlord, as well as breaking into other people's apartments and houses to steal or blackmail them for their secrets. But let's be real - being creative while building your rental units is where it's at. They could be anything - from the apartment buildings to trailer parks. Maybe you want to rent just a single room, with the rest of the house being shared with other tenants - that's cool too!
Lovestruck feels like a less packed sequel to Growing Together. It fleshes out the romance aspect of the game by adding Attraction (Turn-Ons and Turn-Offs), Romance Satisfaction, Romance Dynamics, Blind Dates, as well as much needed spicy gameplay. The Cupid's Corner app gives you an option to find someone special online. There's also a new date-planning system that allows you to plan the activities for your perfect date. Overall, Lovestruck is just a lot of fun, with a lot of room to make every relationship feel a little different. It also works as a great companion piece to Growing Together, especially once you start messing with the Attraction and Social Compatibility settings and mixing them together.
B Tier
High School Years
If you've wondered why there isn't any teen-related gameplay in Growing Together, it's because it's all here, in High School Years. Some of the features of this pack feel a little half-baked, but it's so close to being good, I had no choice but put it between tiers A and C.
High School Years focuses entirely on teenagers. It brings the ability to control teens while they're at school, plenty of after-school activities, prom, graduation, career day, two new social media platforms, pranking, crushes, and of course, puberty. On top of it, it features some amusement park rides rabbit holes, and the Thrift and Bubble Tea Store which is a very interesting addition to the existing lot types.
This pack is worth getting as it expands the entire life stage, however some of its features could have been more fleshed-out, which is why I couldn't put it higher.
C Tier
The packs featured on this tier aren't bad. To summarize them all - if you feel like doing X today, then those packs will bring you tons of fun. However, they won't affect the overall gameplay - you need to choose to actively play the content they bring to experience them.
To fully experience Cats & Dogs or Horse Ranch in its entirety you need to choose to have one of those animals in your family, and that's probably not going to happen in every single household you play. You won't even see any stray dogs outside of Brindleton Bay, unless you have a mod. With that being said, if you love animals, and you absolutely can't live without them, there's a lot of fun to have with those packs.
City Living, Island Living and Snowy Escape suffer from a similar problem - the gameplay is contained within the worlds featured in those packs. As long as you're not playing in those worlds, you're not going to experience the pack. (Note: Snowy Escape does bring the Lifestyles feature, but let's be real with ourselves, this feature is really annoying and it's best to have it turned off.) Of course, those worlds are still very interesting and vibrant, each of them coming with their own festivals as well, but if you're not interested in those settings, you won't get too much gameplay outside of them.
Get to Work features three active careers (Scientist, Detective, Doctor), the possibility to own a retail business, and aliens. Get Famous features another active career (Actor), as well as the fame and reputation mechanics. There's a lot of fun to be found in those active careers, but once again, realistically, you will ignore the other features if you're not actively playing the contents of those packs. (Note: Personally, I love the fame mechanic, but I can't put Get Famous higher in the ranking with a clear conscience - Del Sol Valley feels very under-cooked, and the game doesn't give you any tools to stop celebrities and paparazzi from appearing on the community lots. This mod is the only workaround I've found.)
And then there's also Discover University, which I believe was created for the sims with long lifespans only. If you play on a lifespan shorter than that, your sim will age up and die before they graduate, and no, you can't change the length of degrees, unless you have a mod. You also can't take a break to play with other households midway through the university run - the university gameplay keeps going even when you're not looking, and your sim will get bad grades off-screen when you're not controlling them, making this pack very unfriendly to people who like the rotational gameplay. With that being said, the gameplay itself is pretty fun and challenging, and the degrees will affect your career, but you need to fully commit to the run from start to finish, which is a huge let down.
And there you have it! I will update the ranking after more Expansion Packs come out.
(Link to the tier list template.)
(Link to the tier list template.)
