The Sims 4: City Living

The Sims 4 City Living was developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts, released in 2016. It is a major expansion pack that shifts gameplay from suburban and small-town life toward dense urban living, placing Sims in high-rise apartments and bustling city neighbourhoods with a focus on community events, cultural variety and compact-lot design.

The DLC introduces the new city world with multiple distinct districts, apartment buildings with rental and landlord mechanics, city-specific venues such as food markets, karaoke bars and street festivals, and a range of urban-themed build/buy items and clothing. Gameplay emphasises vertical living and communal spaces, with new social interactions tied to city life, public events that change neighbourhood dynamics, and features that encourage nightlife, street food culture and diverse civic experiences.

Promotion for City Living used Electronic Arts’ and Maxis’ standard channels, including trailers, store listings, social media reveals and developer showcases that highlighted the new city world, apartment gameplay and seasonal street festivals. Community creators, livestreams and build-and-play demonstrations were widely employed to show off apartment layouts, festival activities and the thematic atmospheres of each district, with marketing aimed at players who wanted livelier social scenes and more varied neighbourhood storytelling.

Reception was broadly positive but mixed in places, with many players praising the expansion’s vibrant atmospheres, festival mechanics and the fresh challenge of apartment design, while some criticism focused on technical issues at launch, limitations in apartment AI and how small living spaces could feel restrictive compared with standalone lots. Overall City Living is regarded as one of the more transformative expansions for The Sims 4, appreciated for adding cultural variety, public events and a convincing urban playground for social storytelling.