Home / Games / The Sims™ 3
The Sims™ 3
The Sims 3: Create the perfect world with full customization at your fingertips. Refine personalities and help fulfill destinies.
In short, Steam reviewers most often praise “lively open-world life simulation” (42 of 104 reviews) and “substantial, optional expansion packs” (8); the most common complaint is “launch failures, crashes, broken saves” (16). What reviewers agree on ↓
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-26 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-12.
What reviewers agree on
42 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Great game from my childhood. World feels way more connected and alive than the world of The Sims 4, and it doesn't feel incredibly boring and bland without expansions like the Sims 4 does. The main issue is the game is…”
“Even though I have left a negative review for The Sims 4, TS3 is where it's at. Pros: - Fully fleshed out game - No more constant updates so your game isn't breaking - Building is so much better compared to TS4 - Open…”
“it's the sims! truly, what else is there to say? in all seriousness, i've been playing the sims 3 on both PC and console since i was a kid, and i'm now 20 years old and 300+ hours deep on steam (far more when counting…”
8 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Do not buy the sims 4 the sims 3 still has it's charm, and is an era before EA went nuts on DLC buy this and you save yourself a lot of pain”
“sims 3 is leaps and bounds better than sims 4. map is better and smoother, bulding is better, what makes up 3 or 4 packs in the sims 4 is just one pack in the sims 3. it might not have the same ammount of content but…”
“Fun game with a complete core experience compared to The Sims 4. I used to play this game for hundreds of hours when I was a kid, both The Sims 2 and The Sims 3. In my opinion, The Sims 3 is still the top-tier Sims…”
6 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“sims 3 is leaps and bounds better than sims 4. map is better and smoother, bulding is better, what makes up 3 or 4 packs in the sims 4 is just one pack in the sims 3. it might not have the same ammount of content but…”
“Still better than Sims 4. Also doesn't cost a months pay just to get all the content.”
“Been playing for almost 900 hours. Completed all DLCs (except those 'stuff' ones) and I can vouch that Sims 3 is more worth it than Sims 4. Still the best!”
5 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“I bought this game is 2015, and since then I have spent 12,000 hours of my life dedicated to it. good game 10/10”
“it's the sims! truly, what else is there to say? in all seriousness, i've been playing the sims 3 on both PC and console since i was a kid, and i'm now 20 years old and 300+ hours deep on steam (far more when counting…”
“i possibly may have an addiction to this game but it is what it is really....atleast i admit it....but seriously i have over 800 hours in it..please take me to rehab”
4 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“I love this game. Very nostalgic, a game from my youth. It runs smoothly and efficiently. Time goes by very quickly when playing this game.”
“sims 3 is leaps and bounds better than sims 4. map is better and smoother, bulding is better, what makes up 3 or 4 packs in the sims 4 is just one pack in the sims 3. it might not have the same ammount of content but…”
“for me this is and always be the best sims in the series. it works great on my pc with windows 11”
16 of the 104 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“this game was literally my childhood so i was sooo hyped to run it on my pc… just for it to be completely broken ;( like nonstop bugs and hardware issues i went down every reddit rabbit hole trying to fix it and NOTHING…”
“Sims 3 has been my all time favorite game ever since I used to play it on the Xbox, but it hasn't worked for months. I have searched the internet and forums for something to fix my game issue, and no matter what I've…”
“I love playing this game, but it has an issue launching without a convoluted workaround for years now.”
13 of the 104 reviews raise this · 11 of them still recommend the game.
“this game was literally my childhood so i was sooo hyped to run it on my pc… just for it to be completely broken ;( like nonstop bugs and hardware issues i went down every reddit rabbit hole trying to fix it and NOTHING…”
“Great game from my childhood. World feels way more connected and alive than the world of The Sims 4, and it doesn't feel incredibly boring and bland without expansions like the Sims 4 does. The main issue is the game is…”
“Even though I have left a negative review for The Sims 4, TS3 is where it's at. Pros: - Fully fleshed out game - No more constant updates so your game isn't breaking - Building is so much better compared to TS4 - Open…”
9 of the 104 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“Even though I have left a negative review for The Sims 4, TS3 is where it's at. Pros: - Fully fleshed out game - No more constant updates so your game isn't breaking - Building is so much better compared to TS4 - Open…”
“The game itself is fine, it's sims. I shouldn't have to review the sims if you're looking at 3. Not optimized for modern hardware but you expected that, you're looking at sims 3 and you know EA puts no care into…”
“I was trying to play Sims 3; I caved and got it, as well as Generations/Ambitions, as I have heard those are good expansions to start with. What a mistake that was. I am about at my wits' end trying to get this damn…”
5 of the 104 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“Even though I have left a negative review for The Sims 4, TS3 is where it's at. Pros: - Fully fleshed out game - No more constant updates so your game isn't breaking - Building is so much better compared to TS4 - Open…”
“The game itself is fine, it's sims. I shouldn't have to review the sims if you're looking at 3. Not optimized for modern hardware but you expected that, you're looking at sims 3 and you know EA puts no care into…”
“I was trying to play Sims 3; I caved and got it, as well as Generations/Ambitions, as I have heard those are good expansions to start with. What a mistake that was. I am about at my wits' end trying to get this damn…”
5 of the 104 reviews raise this · 1 of them still recommend the game.
“The game itself is fine, it's sims. I shouldn't have to review the sims if you're looking at 3. Not optimized for modern hardware but you expected that, you're looking at sims 3 and you know EA puts no care into…”
“The Sims 3 is one of my favorite and most played games of all time. With that being said, I cannot recommend purchasing it in its current state. The game is incompatible with current hardware due to multiple issues.…”
“Game does not work, Steam needs to update games so when you purchase them they are fixed. I had bought Sims 1 and sims 3 with all the DLC, months went by and they never fixed the issue that was making them not launch.…”
Counted across 104 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 86.2% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“i prefer ts3 over ts4 personally. although keep in mind it can run a bit badly on modern computers (to be fair, even older computers lol) make sure to get optimizing mods. also, to become fully updated on the DLC, it's a lot cheaper than ts4 as there's less expansions and they…”
— a player, Steam review · 1,009 hrs played“I used to LOVE the sims 4. I read about how TS3 was better. I decided to check it out myself. I was shocked with the open world. the ability to go to the stores and by things, minimal loading screens, adn create a style. I still though TS4 was better. That was until I bought…”
— a player, Steam review · 154 hrs played“This fossil should have a special edition including everything totaling $20.”
— a player, Steam review · 178 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-10-20). Relative comparison only.
Games like The Sims™ 3
From our knowledge graph — ranked by shared traits, not a black box. Each card says why it's here.
The Sims™ 4
87.1% · 103,437 reviews
shares Life Sim, Romance, Nudity, Building
Cities: Skylines
92.7% · 127,021 reviews
shares Moddable, Replay Value, Building, Great Soundtrack
RollerCoaster Tycoon® 3: Platinum
92.0% · 3,811 reviews
shares Moddable, Building, Great Soundtrack, Sandbox
Turbo Dismount™
93.9% · 4,704 reviews
shares Moddable, Great Soundtrack, Sandbox, Comedy
Scribblenauts Unlimited
93.2% · 7,904 reviews
shares Moddable, Replay Value, Sandbox, Comedy
Streamer Life Simulator
73.8% · 2,206 reviews
shares Life Sim, Replay Value, Nudity, Sandbox
Youtubers Life
76.5% · 7,680 reviews
shares Life Sim, Character Customization, Sandbox, Comedy
UNDEFEATED
88.3% · 4,198 reviews
shares Replay Value, Nudity, Great Soundtrack, Sandbox
Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-12.
| Genres | Simulation |
| Player tags | Life Sim · Simulation · Character Customization · Building · Sandbox · Singleplayer · Casual · Funny · Moddable · Romance · RPG · Family Friendly (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Family Sharing |
| Languages | Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese - Portugal, Russian, Spanish - Spain, Swedish, Traditional Chinese |
| Official site | http://www.thesims3.com/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
OS *: Windows XP (Service Pack 2) or Windows Vista (Service Pack 1) Processor: (XP) 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent; (Vista) 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent Memory: (XP) 1 GB; (Vista) 1.5 GB Graphics: 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 DirectX®: Hard Drive: At least 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content Sound: Built-in Graphics: Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA X3000 or above. 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent 0.5 GB additional RAM Supported Video Cards: Nvidia GeForce series: FX5900 or greater, G100, GT