The Ultimate Ranking of The Sims 4 Expansion Packs

What is the best Sims 4 expansion pack? Everyone has different opinions on the 11 different expansion packs. While we won’t be getting another expansion pack in 2021, overall this year has been good to the sims community. So, today I’m sharing my ranking of the expansion packs. Grab a snack or two, because this is a long one! I’ll be doing the same for game packs, stuff packs, and kits in the future. And… I may have some controversial opinions (I like the Star Wars pack?!?).

The game is insanely expensive if you get all packs. This is the first time I’ve ever had all of the expansion packs. And that’s purely because I’ve spent my own money on them, and I wait for sales. But, I used to ask for new packs for birthday or Christmas gifts. So I want to give you some advice on which packs are the best bang for your buck.

11. Get To Work

The first expansion pack for the Sims 4 is also my least favorite. By no means do I regret getting this pack- I just think there are better options if you can only get a few. The active careers that come in this pack (Doctor, Police, Scientist) are things that are fun to play through once. After that, they become very mundane and repetitive. Luckily, if you like the other features of the pack, there is an option to send your sim to work without you.

This pack also brought the retail system to the Sims 4. And while I loved Open for Business in the Sims 2, I have never even used it in this game. Open for Business is definitely one of the top-tier packs ever released. So I’m not surprised that Get to Work just can’t compare, especially when the retail aspect is only a small portion of the pack.

This pack does add the baking and photography skills, and adds aliens to the game, as well as their world Sixam (which is Maxis spelled backwards). You can only access Sixam through the rocket science skill or the scientist career. We also get the classic alien abductions with potential male pregnancies back. This pack also adds Magnolia Promenade to the game, which is a small 4 lot world. Most players that I’ve seen use this world as a place to house businesses, such as a bowling alley or spa (from game packs). Overall, if you like active careers, this pack is great. But, the items and world that you get with the pack are not worth the money- use custom content instead.

10. Island Living

Island Living has al the potential to be a great pack, but it fails in execution. The world of Sulani is beautiful. But it’s a livable world and not one that you can only visit on vacation. That’s a small detail, but it means you have limitations in your gameplay. This was released in June of 2019, when there were already vacation worlds and rental lots, so I don’t understand why this world wasn’t at least split with a few rental lots.

This pack brings us the Conservationist Career. Being able to interact with the world and improve the ecosystem does add gameplay, similar to how the Eco Lifestyle career works. There’s also more additions to the fishing skill, and you can become a lifeguard or diver. But, the world isn’t navigable when diving like it was in the Sims 3 Island Paradise.

Island Living also introduces mermaids into the game. Mermaids come with a few powers, but I’ve never found them to be exciting to play with. I admit I have not spent a ton of time playing with them, mainly because they lose my interest very quickly. The Create-A-Sim aspect of mermaids is very detailed, and you can create some beautiful mermaids. It’s also fun to play with creating ‘good’ mermaids as well as ‘evil’ ones.

Overall, Island Living has the bones of a great pack. This pack would be a great option for a pack update. There are so many ideas that have been shared by the community, so EA would know exactly which direction to go in.

9. Cats & Dogs

Cats & Dogs is a frustrating pack. The pack only features cats and dogs, unlike the previous pet packs which have featured hamsters (or some sort of rodent pet) and horses. In the Sims 3 you could control your pets just like you do for your human sims, and there was a cheat that enabled that option in the Sims 2. Cats & Dogs seems to be taking a similar path of The Sims: Unleashed, with only 2 types of pets allowed, and minimal features.

The game does allow for more customization of your pets and breed options, and it brings us the Veterinary career and clinic system. But, that also means your pets get sick. And they get sick a lot. It’s as if the game developers wanted to make sure that the vet features were utilized well, because every few days you have to go to the clinic. Because of that detail, having a pet in your game in the Sims 4 can often be more of an annoyance than anything else.

However, the world that comes with this pack, Brindleton Bay, is beautiful. And, there are stray cats and dogs that you’ll find in the world that can be adopted and/or befriended. Cats & Dogs isn’t a terrible pack, but the fact that there is code for other types of animals, like horses, within the pack, is frusturating. If the release had been delayed but more features like that were added, I don’t think people would have been upset. And then there’s the whole issue of the My First Pet Stuff pack. Which, if you don’t know, is a stuff pack that basically adds a few features to the Cats & Dogs expansion. That pack release reeks of controversy

8. City Living

City Living adds the city of San Myshuno into your game, and enables you to live in apartment buildings. Each of the 4 city districts has a different feel to it and are home to unique festivals and community lots. We have the Spice Market, the Arts Quarter, the Fashion District, and Uptown. There are livable apartments within each district, with varying rent prices.

In most apartment buildings, you’ll also have neighbors that will affect your game. Sometimes, they just knock on the door to chat, or because they smell your dinner and want free food. But, you also get noise issues when they’re doing various activities. If you have your stereo on at midnight and are dancing around, your neighbor won’t be too happy with you. You’ll get moodlets if a neighbor does something similar, just as you get one from them having a nice ole’ woohoo. But, you can’t see into your neighbor’s apartment, so you’ll have to watch their door to know what kind of disturbance you’re dealing with.

City Living also adds festivals, lot traits, a Critic career – food or art, a Political career, Social Media career, and the singing skill. Personally, the Social Media career is one of my favorites. And, with the addition of Get Famous, your game has a whole new feel.

7. Get Famous

Get Famous is a very niche pack. I enjoy playing with the gameplay features from this pack. I’m not a huge fan of the world Del Sol Valley, which is a Los Angeles inspired world. But, I also haven’t spent a ton of time playing in that world. The world was a pretty hot topic for awhile during the packs’s promotion and release- the game changers had a lot of opinions on it.

The Fame system comes with 2 sides to it- reputation and celebrity rank. Even if you opt out of becoming famous (you can turn it off in options), your sim will gain a positive or negative reputation based on their actions. The Celebrity ranking system fluctuates- your sim can move up and down the latter multiple times over. And as they go about their day, they’ll gain quirks. The sim who is always taking selfies may become the victim of a public phone number, and they’ll get crazy fans calling them, and people calling to make fun of them. You’ll also deal with paparazzi following you around and waiting outside your house.

Get Famous also brought us the Acting career, which is another active career just like the ones from Get To Work. The career is pretty fun to do, but like the other active careers, does become repetitive. The extra details that influence the career, such as choosing an acting agency, can be fun ways to influence your sim without much effort. The media production skill also came with this pack, and you have access to drones and streaming equipment- your sim can now essentially be a YouTuber. Combine that with the fame system, and the City Living Social Media career, and the game is vastly different from traditional family gameplay.

6. Eco Lifestyle

If you’re a fan of rags to riches challenges, then Eco Lifestyle is a must. The enhancements that this pack makes to the bills system, and the off-the grid lot trait adds a much needed challenge to the game. This pack revolves around living a green lifestyle. Most things you do influence your lot’s eco-footprint, which determines if your lot is more green or industrial. Objects and items you use to build your home with also influence this rating. Some floor styles are more eco-friendly then others, and some have an additional fire resistance feature.

To make your home more green, you can add solar panels, wind turbines, and dew collectors to your home to help make the most of natural resources. You can also do special upgrades to your appliances like low water usage. Or, there’s an upgrade that uses a different kind of fuel. But, you then have the danger of spontaneous combustion. The amount of times my toilets have caught fire after being used is insane.

One of the big features of the pack is the new Neighborhood Action Plans (NAPs). Over the weekend, everyone in the town votes on a plan that will then need to implemented until your sim gets enough signatures to repeal it. Your town could suddenly become all about ‘free love,’ self-sufficiency, bagheads, or more (Yes, they will wear paper bags on their heads). And if you don’t want to follow the NAPs, you don’t have to, but when the inspector comes to your home, you’ll be fined. But if the idea of neighborhood action plans sounds awful to you, you are able to turn it off in the game options. Not going to lie, I do that a lot. But if you don’t, you do gain influence points (used to vote for the NAPs) pretty quickly, so it’s easy to dominate the vote with your preferences.

5. Discover University

After years of waiting, Discover University was released in the fall of 2019. University is always a really popular pack, but each edition of the game has very distinct elements. In the Sims 4, this expansion pack adds the town of Britechester, which is the home of 2 separate schools- Britechester University and Foxbury Institute. Having both schools in the same town is a great feature. In community lots, you’ll find students from both schools, and there is a strong sense of school pride, and a rivalry between the two.

Discover University is by far the best university expansion pack so far. If you’ve liked previous university packs, odds are, you’ll probably enjoy Discover University. The added details of scholarships, and student organizations and events help make the game feel alive. There are no active classes, which I’m not mad about. The semester schedule also got an overhaul. Each semester, which lasts about a week in-game time, has multiple classes that you take, and each class has separate requirements for skills, final exams, projects, or term papers. Like in previous university packs, Discover University adds additional careers- Education, Engineering, and Law.

One of my favorite aspects of the pack is the distinguished degrees. Each school offers the same degrees, however, each school is specialized in some subjects. For example, if you want to be a literature major, then Britechester is the school for you if you want a distinguished degree. When you apply to college after becoming a young adult, your acceptance letter lists what programs you’re qualified for. And if you’re not accepted into the distinguished program, you can still get the ‘regular’ degree and graduate ‘with honors.’ All degree options have their own set of career and future benefits.

4. Snowy Escape

Snowy Escape is a pack that I wasn’t sure about when it was released. But, I’m so glad I gave it a chance and bought it during a sale earlier this year. The amount of activities it adds to the game is well-worth the cost of the pack. The town of Mt. Komorebi is based off of a Japan-style world, and from the reviews and comments I’ve seen, EA did a good job incorporating realistic elements of Japanese culture in to the game. The world is built on a mountainside, and has livable and rental lots, which I love. (Island Living needs this!)

The pack adds skiing, snowboarding, and rock climbing as activities and skills, and you’re able to go on hikes. While on the hikes, your sim will interact with the enviornment around them, just like you would in real life. And the hiking skill is then available in other worlds such as Granite Falls (Outdoor Retreat). If your sims isn’t athletically inclined, they can head to the hot spring and relax, or head to one of the festivals that take place in the town.

The skiing and snowboarding is my favorite aspect of the pack. I haven’t been skiing in years, but when I did go I always loved it, and I can’t help but live vicariously thorough my sims. Especially when they’re first learning the skills, watching them wipe out while on the training slope is hilarious, and when they make it down the hill still on their feet, I can’t help but get excited with them. This pack was definitely a welcome addition to my game.

3. Seasons

You’ve probably been told this before, but it’s true. Once you play the game with seasons, it’s hard to play without. In fact, when I first purchased the Sims 4, I created a bundle deal on Origin that included the base game, Seasons, Parenthood, and Laundry Day.

While the Sims 2 and 3 were playable without the seasons expansion pack, I don’t know that the 4th game would be. The game is already ‘easy.’ So, the small amount of environmental consequences that weather brings and the moodlets are a necessity for me. And while I do miss the festivals from Sims 3, I also really like the calendar and holidays in the Sims 4. Now, that is a base game feature. But up until Cottage Living was released, that was not a feature that everyone had in their game.

There are some new activities added with this pack, such as BeeKeeping, and children can now join Scouts. The flower arranging skill was added with this pack, and the gardening skill was updated. Now, all harvestables have seasons where they grow, and some where they don’t. Since I’ve never played the game without this pack, I can’t tell you what the gardening skill was like for me before this update. However, as someone who loves Rags to Riches challenges and ends up with enormous gardens, this is a nice touch that helps make tending my gardens manageable.

2. Get Together

Get Together is such an underrated pack. I won’t lie, I bought this pack solely for the world. Windenburg is a beautiful European-style town, and it’s by far my favorite world in the game. Despite only buying this pack for the world, the gameplay additions make this an essential pack for my game. In addition to the activities for sims to do together, like the game ‘Don’t Wake the Llama,’ we also get the dance and DJ skills. I love the dancing skill- you can even have a sim teach a toddler to dance and that improves their movement skill.

The club system seemed strange at first, but there are so many useful ways to play with it. In my personal 100 Baby Challenge, all the members of that family (not the fathers) are in one club. Then, the matriarch can invite them all over for Christmas, etc., with the click of a button. And since I end up with a house filled with about 30 sims, having the club activities things like chat, hug, tell jokes, and eat, make a large gathering easy because the sims automatically go to do those things while the club gathering is in session.

Other townies and NPCs (non-playable character) will invite you to join their clubs at random, and they can be a great way to meet other sims. You can also create clubs yourself. So if you’re like me and decide what a child’s life story will be before they’re even born, you can make a club and townies will autonomously join. Then, when your child joins, they’ll be making friends with like-minded people.

1. Cottage Living

No surprise here. Cottage Living was released in July (2021) and I am still playing it obsessively. And by obsessively, I mean almost every day. Between the world, build/buy items, and the gameplay features in this pack is an absolute must have.

I was in the minority group that wasn’t pushing for a farming pack, so when the rumors began that that’s what we’d be getting, I wasn’t too excited. But, the addition of farming to the game has been something I really, really like. The fact that I can have my own llamas, cows, and chickens is so much fun. And just like pets and human sims, they age and die. But their death is so sweet and happy. I never thought I’d be teary over the grim reaper bending down to pet a chicken, but here I am. It’s not traumatizing like it is when your cats or dogs die.

The Finchwick Fairs are fun, and they’re pretty challenging. I think even now, I’ve only gotten a first place ribbon a handful of times, and I’ve been playing for months. Even if you don’t win, you’ll get a participation trophy. Which, is one of the most millennial things I’ve ever heard, but in the best way. And the whole town gathers for the fairs, so even if you’re not competing, it’s a great way to meet townies, and finish off those errands you’re doing for other townies.

The English countryside inspired town of Henford-on-Bagely is absolutely beautiful. Windenburg is the only town I like more. Even now, months after this pack release, I can’t get enough of it. When Cottage Living released in July, I did a full review here on my blog where I talk about a lot more of the pack features. Check it out below, along with my YouTube videos for this pack. I also highly recommend watching the official gameplay trailer on The Sims’ channel– that video is the one that made me actually pre-order the pack, something I’ve never done before.

• Cottage Living Expansion Pack- Full Review
• Cottage Living Create-a-Sim Overview
• Speed Build: Cottage and Small Farm

Did you guess my rankings correctly? What is your favorite expansion pack? Do you agree with my rankings? Let me know in the comments below!

Looking for other posts to read? Read my review of the Dream Home Decorator Game Pack or my spoiler-free review of Only Murders in the Building.