The Sims reach double digit birthday, over 125m copies have sold

Will Wright’s The Sims has just made it to its 10th birthday, having racked up more than $2.5bn in revenue for a proud, exploitative EA.

The franchise has peddled over 125m copies, with The Sims 3 clearing 4.5m to date, having launched last June. Playing God rules.

Where else can you give a virtual something everything they want, before cruelly stripping it away and watching the misery ensue? Maybe that’s just me…

When The Sims 3 retailed last June it sold 3.7 million that month alone, and at the same time The Sims 3 Exchange went live allowing fans to shop and swap content. Over 110 million pieces of content have since been downloaded.

EA has always launched expansions for The Sims, which has helped keep the franchise burning away all these years. I remember the very first game - do you, videogamer? That was long before pets, college, and diagonally placeable windows arrived.

Look at them now…