The Sims™ 3
Fair · Strategy · 2011
Steam Deck UnsupportedThe verdict
NO RUSH.
Fair at $19.99. Buy it if you want it.
- Cost per hourS
- $0.36/hr
- Reviews▼
- 86% of 34,466
- Critics
- 86
- Genre rank
- Top 5% Strategy
Holding it back: Monetization, Reviews
Recent reviews trending down: 77% over the last 30 days against 86% all-time.
Watch this gameOne alert at a price you pick.
Time and effort
- Main story
- 54.9h
- To 100%
- 154h 2.8x the story
Price and sales
- Sales
- 34 on record
- Typical cut
- 75% off
- Steam low
- $2.99 July 2018
- Sale every
- 61d last April 2024
Players and genre
- Online
- 947 now
- Recent reviews
- 77% 30 days
- Cheaper than
- 7% of its genre
- Better reviewed
- 91% of its genre
Price and player charts
The value story
The value story
34 discounts in the 14 years on record, a median of 75 percent off across all of them, roughly 9 weeks apart. Today it is at full price, and its last discount ended about 130 weeks ago.
Its score puts it in the top 5 percent of the games it competes with. It is pricier than 93 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 91 percent. Among the games that feel like it, The Coin Game ($13.39, scores 71) beats it on value, while it beats Youtubers Life ($19.99, scores 44).
More about The Sims™ 3
Players rate it 86 percent positive over its lifetime, but the last 30 days run 77 percent. Something recent has soured the room. 34 of the 800 Steam-purchase reviews sampled here come from buyers who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written February 2025 to August 2026. That is more refunded reviewers than 7 in 10 paid games this site has sampled to the same depth, and among the 2,604 games in its genre sampled this deeply, 713 have a larger share. Inside the two-hour refund window, 54 percent of the 2,152 reviews written there were positive, against 86 percent overall, and those are 7 percent of everything written about it. It sells extras on top of the sticker price (currency, cosmetic); the score docks it lightly for that.
Finishing takes 54.9 hours; clearing it takes 154, which is 2.8 times the campaign.
Buy now or wait
Buy now or wait
Not discounted in any of its last 8 seasonal sales. Last discount ended 909 days ago.
- Next sale
- Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
What drives the score
Grades: S best, D weakest
S is the best grade and D the weakest, judged as a buyer. ▲ raises the score, ▼ lowers it, ? is an input we do not have, • is a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
What players say
plenty of bugs, make sure to save often, i like this over sims 4. seems like its faster paced and more of a snsadbox
2 more reviews
Step 1: Buy the game and every single DLC. Step 2: Spend 3 hours following guide tutorials to trick a 2009 game engine into recognizing a GPU made after the Obama administration. Step 3: Install NRaas, FPS limiters, performance patches, and 5GB of custom content hair. Step 4: Finally hit Play. Step 5: Witness absolute, unadulterated peak gaming. In all seriousness, The Sims 3 is still the undisputed king of life...
Enjoy messing around on this when I first moved out of home. Had countless late night drinking sessions blasting music and enjoying the life I was building for my characters. Fantastic sandbox game. I would wait until it goes on sale.
Steam reviews, mixed to its ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
About the game
The Sims 3: Create the perfect world with full customization at your fingertips. Refine personalities and help fulfill destinies.
Minimum specs
Minimum on the Steam store: 1 GB of memory, 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0, 6.5 GB of storage. Windows only.
No data upstream: achievement curve (Steam global achievements).
Cite this score
The Sims™ 3 scores 67/100 on the BANG Score (fair value) as of Nov 8, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/47890/the-sims-3Reviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Oct 31, price as of Nov 7. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.