What is the best Mod for Sims 4?

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The Sims 4 mods - Become A Sorcerer: Mortimer Goth laughs maniacally with fire in his palms.

(Image credit: Electronic Arts, Maxis / Modded by Triplis)

If you're seeking Sims 4 mods to liven up your Sims' lives, you're in luck. Whether you want some more interaction options between your favorite Sims, or skip the mundane stuff and fully realize their magical destiny thanks to a modded sorcery suite, there are all sorts of Sims mods that can sculpt the game to fit your desired playstyle.

Despite it being nearly a decade since release, new Sims 4 mods still regularly appear on ModTheSims (opens in new tab)—which has long been the biggest platform for creators. You'll find everything from minor changes to total reworks. Some well-known modders, including LittleMsSam (opens in new tab) and KawaiiStacie (opens in new tab), have even become so big they have their own websites for their collections of creations. 

However, as expected for adding user-created mods to games, it can be tough to figure out which still work, and which might make your game upset. Not all of them receive regular updates, and so might not play nicely with the latest official additions from EA. Yeah, it's lovely that your teenage Sims get to enjoy a more fully realized existence, but every new high school gameplay mechanic is a potential landmine for an outdated mod.

To help you navigate what's on offer, here’s a lineup of the best Sims 4 mods, from the little tweaks, to the digital life-changers. Make sure to read the installation section, and double check for any conflicts to make sure you’re not running two that will butt heads. 

How to install Sims 4 mods

The Sims 4 Options menu unter the Other tab. There is a checkbox for enabling custom content and also a check box for enabling script mods about halfway through the menu page.

(Image credit: Electronic Arts, Maxis)

How do you install mods for The Sims 4? Luckily it's pretty simple, especially if you only want to make a couple tweaks. 

To install Sims 4 mods, you can drag and drop the mod folders you've downloaded into your Sims 4 "Mods" folder. The game should automatically have created one for you after you start up the game for the first time. 

Your mods folder is located in: Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/Mods.

Once you're in game, you'll also need to enable mods in your game settings by going to your Options menu under the Other tab. Make sure to check off "Enable Custom Content and Mods" and "Script Mods Allowed" depending on what you've chosen to install. You'll need to restart your game afterwards.

Always check out the installation instructions for any mod you download just to be sure there aren't any more additional steps. Most should just be a quick matter of copying files over. Do keep an eye out for any dependencies your mods have, such as meshes creates by other modders that you'll also need to install.

Create-A-Sim mods

New personality traits

The Sims 4 mod - Sweet Tooth trait: A sim in the character creator with a tool tip explaining the Sweet Tooth modded trait

(Image credit: Electronic Arts, Maxis / Modded by Sresla)

Download from: ModTheSims (opens in new tab)

Many of the best Sims 4 mods affect the ways Sims interact with each other. The Sims 4 has a long list of traits that change the way a Sim behaves, and because they’re relatively easy for modders to create you can quickly expand that list through custom content. 

The Sweet Tooth trait, for example, makes your sims better at baking and adds new moodlets to help them express their love of cake, while the New Hobby Traits helps encourage you to have your sim engage in their favorite activities to stay stress-free. There are tonnes of traits available on ModTheSims in case you're looking for even more unusual choices to try out.

Want to try out several new traits at once? This mod lets you add more than three traits at a time: you just need to type a quick cheat code including the name of the desired trait to add it to your Sim. It’s all explained on the mod page.

Height Sliders

The Sims 4 mod - Height Sliders: Bob Pancakes standing next to a very tall Eliza Pancakes

(Image credit: Electronic Arts, Maxis / Modded by Godjul1)

Download from: ModTheSims (opens in new tab)

With the new Create-a-Sim tool in The Sims 4, you can spawn Sims of many different widths, but you can't alter how tall they are. This height slider from GODJUL1 lets you adjust the height of your Sims so that the world looks more naturally varied: just click and drag their feet in Create-a-Sim to stretch or shrink them. 

Automatic Beards

The Sims 4 automatic beards mod - A sim stands in front of a mirror with shaving cream on his face holding a razor

(Image credit: Electronic Arts, Maxis / Modded by Flerb)

Download from: ModTheSims (opens in new tab)

Technically this is actually a Live Mode mod, but because it affects your Sim's appearance we'll let it hang out in Create-A-Sim. With this mod, your sims will grow a beard over time. If you don't want to wait for nature, there's even a beard tonic to speed things up. Once it's too long, your Sim can shave and style their facial hair in the mirror. We all know The Sims 4 needs more personal chores, right?

Build and Buy Mode mods

OMSP Shelf

The Sims 4 mod - OMSP Shelf. A Red shelf is clipped through the top of a refrigerator so clutter items can be placed on top of it.

(Image credit: Amoebae)

Download from: PictureAmoebae (opens in new tab)

This is a big must-have for players who like constructing intricate scenes. Placing clutter items naturally in The Sims 4 can be a bit of a headache. Even if you've gotten good at using your ALT key for free placement and the 0 or 9 keys to change an object's height, you can run into snapping nightmares. The OMSP shelf helps you add clutter to just about anything by acting as a placeholder surface while you clutter to your heart's desire.

Better Build/Buy

Download from: TwistedMexi's Patreon (opens in new tab)

For the pro builders in the room, TwistedMexi's Better Build/Buy mod relieves a lot of headaches. This mod expands the number of rows while browsing for objects and makes using filters easier too. The real biggie though is how easy it makes hunting for debug items—the neat items that exist in The Sims 4 but can usually only be revealed for use via cheats. Better Build/Buy lets you see them without cheats and gives them all names, making them much easier to find. Debug items have color swatches too.

Ravasheen's Bunk Beds

The Sims 4 mod - Ravasheen's bunk beds - A white wooden bunk bed frame with a ladder to the lofted bed and a perpendicular ben beneath.

(Image credit: Electronic Arts, Maxis / Modded by Ravasheen)

Download from: Ravasheen (opens in new tab)

Ravasheen's working bunk beds made a real splash back before The Sims 4 added bunk beds of its own. Even though bunk beds are official now, Ravasheen's bunks are a great modular option for saving space. You can also put Ravasheen's miniature desks beneath a lofted bed and Sims are still able to use them, unlike a lot of base game items paired with standard Sims 4 bunk beds. You'll probably want to grab Ravasheen's bunk bed updates to go with the regular set as well.

Live Mode mods

Wonderful Whims

A screenshot for the Sims 4 mod, Wonderful Whims

(Image credit: EA, Maxis/TURBODRIVER)

Download from: ModTheSims (opens in new tab)

This Sims 4 mod is all about adding more complexity to character romance and interactions, letting you tweak the traits they find attractice in others, dating preferences, and even attitude towards birth control. Wonderful Whims adds a whole extra layer to the Sims 4 dating experience, giving it a little extra depth and less superficiality.

Life's Drama

Download from: SacrificialMods (opens in new tab)

Life's Drama adds a dash of controversy to every neighborhood, with 11 new dramatic scenarios for townie NPCs, some of which you can intervene in. Your Sims might peer out their window to see a couple embroiled in a huge argument, a robber trying to pick a pocket, or a bride running away from her wedding. You can cause some drama yourself via the new "Exposing A Loved One" action, which works on Sims that have partners. Drop the bombshell, and grab some popcorn.

Full installation instructions are here.

The Explore mod

The Sims 4 mod - Explore Mode: Three Sims sit around a card table gambling togther.

(Image credit: Electronic Arts, Maxis / Modded by KawaiiStacie)

Download from: KawaiiStacieMods (opens in new tab)

This mod from KawaiiStacie adds a bunch of rabbit hole actions—activities your Sims can do on their own without you following—that activate buffs or improve your Sims' relationships with those closest to them.

Once your Sims have visited the DMV for a license or bus pass, you can send them exploring just by clicking on them, which brings up a radial wheel of options. You can send them shopping (they'll come back with new clothes), to dance classes, to local attractions, to gambling spots,  to take on some part-time work, and more. Their skills and motives will change based on the activity you choose, and you can tell your Sim to "Explore With" another character if you want to improve relations.

Sims will also randomly explore if you don't intervene, which is neat. The mod works with the base game, but some options rely on specific packs: you can't send Sims for take-out ice cream if you don't own the Cool Kitchen Stuff pack, for example.

Meaningful Stories

The Sims 4 mod - Meaningful Stories: Two Sims kiss and earn a moodlet called A Happy Moment

(Image credit: Electronic Arts, Maxis / Modded by roBurky)

Download from: Roburky.itch.io (opens in new tab)

A mod pack containing some of prolific Sims 4 modder roBurky's best work, all aimed at making your Sims feel more human. If you've used Emotional Inertia or True Happiness—both previously on this list individually—then you'll attest to the quality of roBurky's work, and both of those mods are in the package alongside other must-haves.

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Emotional Inertia, redesigned just for this collection, stops your Sims' moods flipping on and off like a light switch. In the base game, simply having a good meal in a well-decorated room fills them with joy for a few hours, but then the feeling vanishes. Emotional inertia makes moods less predictable, but more stable: they'll change less and last longer, making it more difficult to game the system. True Happiness, meanwhile, changes your Sims' default state from "happy" to "fine". Making them happy actually requires something special to happen, such as meeting a new partner, which will boost their mood considerably for a short time. 

But Meaningful Stories is more than just these two well-liked mods. It also changes how the environment, such as paintings, impacts your Sims' moods. The effects are now more subtle and build up over time. It also stops extreme mood swings, so that instead of going from extreme happiness to sadness your sim will move through the natural, neutral in-between stages. Lastly, it creates more variable moodlets, meaning the same source of mood can give stronger or weaker effects at random.

Become a Sorcerer

The Sims 4 mod - Become A Sorcerer: Mortimer Goth laughs maniacally with fire in his palms.

(Image credit: Electronic Arts, Maxis / Modded by Triplis)

Download from: Triplis.github.io (opens in new tab)

Do you miss the magic of previous Sims games? Become a Sorcerer adds a hearty serving of the supernatural, letting your Sims sling magic spells that can either suck the sadness out of a friend or strike down an enemy with a bolt of lightning. 

You just need to touch lump of clay, choose one of three rituals—they’ll determine which Needs are replaced with new magical ones—and get to casting. Using magic strengthens your powers and unlocks new spells, but it also depletes your “Magical Connection” (a mana bar, basically), and you’ll have to drain either yourself or another Sim to replenish it. 

Depending on your choices, you’ll lean towards good or evil, which changes the type of spells you can cast. Do-gooders can eventually bring ghosts back to life, but if that doesn’t sound like fun, just set fire to a table instead. If you’re bored of your current playthrough, then this is bound to liven it up.     

SimDa Dating App

The Sims 4 mod - SimDa Dating App: A menu from a Sims's phone offers options for blind dates, one night stands, and enabling hook-up calls.

(Image credit: Electronic Arts, Maxis / Modded by LittleMsSam)

Download from: LittleMsSam (opens in new tab)

This mod by LittleMsSam adds extra options for your romantically-inclined Sims. Using their phone, Sims can plan a date with another Sim at a particular neighborhood location. You can also choose to have one-night-stands and get calls for hook-ups from other NPC Sims. The main mod is pretty unrestricted in who it considers to be eligible for dates, including those in different age categories than your Sim and Sims already in relationships. To fine-tune your dating experience, check out the handful of optional addons available with the SimDa app.

Get a job

The Sims 4 - Tattoo Career mod showing the job selection screen for a tattoo artist which earns 20 simoleons an hour three days a week.

(Image credit: Electronic Arts, Maxis / Modded by MesmericSimmer)

Players are adding new careers to ModTheSims every week, so if you’re ever looking for inspiration on which direction to steer your Sim in, give it a browse. The imagination behind them is impressive, and most of them give you a fully-fleshed out path to follow. 

Whether you want to become a tattoo artist , game developer, stock broker or zookeeper, you can now follow your dreams. We especially enjoy transforming our sim from a lowly PR assistant to the owner of a sports team in the sports agent career, which is a converted version of a career from The Sims 3: University Life. 

A word of warning: these custom careers won’t work with most career overhaul mods, such as Turbo Careers—but don’t let that put you off.

Custom food interactions

The Sims 4 mod - Custom food interactions - A radial
menu with several special food choices, including "Make Vampire-friendly custom food"

(Image credit: Electronic Arts, Maxis / Modded by TheFoodGroup)

Download from: ModTheSims (opens in new tab)

If you want more culinary creativity, then Custom Food Interactions is the only place you should start. It doesn’t add any ingredients or recipes to the game—it just adds new possible interactions to cooking equipment along with a framework that lets you craft a fridge-full of custom meals from other modders’ kitchens. 

With it installed, you’ll want to head over to the ModTheSims custom food section and pick from the menu. You’ll find recipes for everything from Chinese dumplings to beignets, blueberry cheesecake to biriyani. Grab an optional bib to make sure you don’t accidentally salivate on your keyboard. 

Have Some Personality Please!

The Sims 4 - The sims talk with one another with excitement

(Image credit: Electronic Arts, Maxis)

Download from: ModTheSims (opens in new tab)

This is one of our favourites on the best Sims 4 mods list. It's a huge overhaul of—as you can probably guess—the way Sims’ personalities work. It changes lots in the background (read the description on the mod page for an exhaustive list) but the best thing about it is that it eliminates all idle conversations. Never again will two Sims blab aimlessly to each other about nothing in particular: instead, they’ll be forced to choose an interaction, which is far more interesting.   

Those interactions aren’t random, either: the mod will select them based on traits, moods and the existing relationships between the two Sims in question, which will give them a greater sense of autonomy than ever before. Expect more kisses from love interests—and more sucker punches from your enemies. 

Turbo Careers

The Sims 4 mod - Turbo Careers: Secret Agent career listing

(Image credit: Electronic Arts, Maxis / Modded by Zerbu )

Download from: Zerbu (opens in new tab)

Another one from Zerbu, the Turbo Careers mod makes all adult (and two teen) careers function like the active careers from the Get to Work expansion. You can download work venues from the Gallery, including ones with a combined function, or make your own—just make sure they have the right objects for Sims to do their job.  

The necessary activities for career progression are naturally related to the career—programming, cooking, exercising—and sometimes Sims will receive fieldwork. An athlete might have to go to the gym and show off her muscles, while a Sim who works in business might have to offer career advice to those running retail venues.   

You can browse (opens in new tab)all available careers here (opens in new tab) and the venue requirements for every job here (opens in new tab)

Replacement paintings

The Sims 4 mod - Replacement paintings: A sim paints
an image of Catwoman playing with a ball of yarn

(Image credit: Electronic Arts, Maxis / Modded by Daisy Tighfield / Artwork by Kathryn Hudson)

Download from: ModTheSims (opens in new tab)

Once your artist Sim has churned out five paintings a day for a week you start to see the same images coming up again and again. This mod from DaisyTighfield replaces those default paintings across all categories with images from around the web, featuring lots of fanart from popular movies and video games.   

If you like what you see, you can follow the links provided to find the original images on Deviantart or other sites. You can even create your own masterpieces for your Sims to paint in-game—the instructions are on the mod page. 

Risky WooHoo

The Sims 4 - Hearts float above a bed where two Sims are beneath the covers together

(Image credit: Electronic Arts, Maxis)

Download from: ModTheSims (opens in new tab)

Another mod bringing The Sims closer to real life is one from PolarBearSims. It introduces a chance for Sims who are capable of getting pregnant to become so any time they Woohoo instead of just when purposefully using "Try for baby". The mod comes with a variety of different percentage risks and adjusts the chances based on where your Sims are getting it on as well as the traits they possess. It also reworks aspects of pregnancy, introducing complications and possible infertility for some Sims.

It should be noted that you can also manually adjust the chances of getting pregnant in MCCC. Risky WooHoo is compatible with that mod, but MCCC will overwrite the percentage chances.

If you’re looking to change the game even more, have a proper dig into the Create a Sim ‘custom gender settings’ in the base game. They were updated a while back and now provide you with more options, such as the ability to allow same-sex couples to fall pregnant. 

And for even more control, check out arturlwww’s Pregnancy Mega Mod (opens in new tab), which lets you do things like give birth to quintuplets.

Better Babies & Toddlers

The Sims 4 mod Better Babies and Toddlers showing a radial menu of conversation options about babies

(Image credit: Electronic Arts, Maxis / Modded by Caradriel )

Download from: Caradriel's Patreon (opens in new tab)

Simmers have been begging for better base game babies for years, but in the meantime modder Caradriel has given us lots more to do with our tiniest Sims. Bear in mind that this mod does require the Parenthood Stuff Pack DLC. Once you've got both, the Better Babies mod gives you all sorts of new moodlets and conversation topics related to raising tiny Sims. 

Once your newborns age up, you'll have even more options available to their parents. Through the Better Toddlers menu, your Sims can attempt to teach their kids new words, ask them to say "mommy" or "daddy" and tell other adult Sims about those accomplishments too.

You'll need the Mood Pack mod in order to use Better Babies as well. Although it isn't required, you may also want to consider giving those worn out parents a break by pairing it with the Hire A Babysitter mod by LittleMsSam.

Utility mods

Best Sims 4 mods MC Command Center

UI Cheats Extension

Download from: Weerbesu's Patreon (opens in new tab)

This handy mod by Weerbesu makes using Sims 4 cheats a breeze if you don't know the lot by heart. Right-clicking various parts of the normal Sims 4 interface will give you extra options for things like giving a household more money, promoting Sims in their careers, or changing the in-game time. You can find the full list of features by scrolling down a bit on the download page.

No death Murphy Beds

Download from: Icemunmun (opens in new tab)

When the Tiny Living stuff pack came out, fold-down Murphy beds seemed like a treat. That is until everyone realized that they seem to kill your Sims quite often. This mod may seem simple but it can save you from a real headache. No more Murphy bed deaths and cheating your Sims back to life after!

MC Command Center

Download from: Deaderpool-mccc (opens in new tab)

MCCC is a mega-mod that lets you tweak virtually aspect of your Sims’ lives, giving you godlike control over them and others in their world. You can blacklist certain clothing items, even on Sims you aren’t controlling. You can set employment rates for Sims of different ages, scan Sims to find out if they’re pregnant, or even terminate the pregnancy.   

There are also lots of automatic settings geared towards letting non-controlled Sims live full lives without you, getting married and having babies of their own volition, and you can also use the mod to adjust the in-game time settings so your Sims don’t take half a day to shower and have breakfast. If you only grab one mod, make it this one.  

Gender Preference mod

Download from: ModTheSims (opens in new tab)

The Gender Preference mod lets you change the preferences Sims have for romantic partners of particular genders (in The Sims 4 currently that’s just two, female and male). You can adjust the numbers to set your Sims to prefer one gender to the exclusion of the other, to prefer one but also like the other, or to like both equally. Romance away. 

Daily Save Mod

Download from: ModTheSims (opens in new tab)

If you've ever lost a week of your Sim's life by forgetting to save, you'll want to think about this mod by Temptest that automatically saves your game every day at your chosen time. It also creates seven save slots so that you can roll back to a previous day if you really want to.

Samuel Horti is a long-time freelance writer for PC Gamer based in the UK, who loves RPGs and making long lists of games he'll never have time to play. He's now a full-time reporter covering health at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. When he does have time for games you may find him on the floor, struggling under the weight of his Steam backlog.

Is The Sims 5 coming?

The Sims 5 release date has not been confirmed yet, so we would not expect to see a new Sims game released this side of late 2022. We could be waiting even longer than that given that the current focus is on The Sims 4 High School Years and other expansions to the pre-existing Sims game.

When did Sims 5 come out?

EA hasn't announced anything yet, but The Sims 5 is still likely a while off. We think we'll be waiting until at least 2024, unless EA and Maxis are further along in the development process than they are letting on. However, on October 18, they're holding a "special-edition" stream titled Behind The Sims Summit.

Is modding Sims 4 allowed?

You may state that your Mods are for The Sims 4 and/or for a specific game expansion pack. Mods must be non-commercial and distributed free-of-charge. Mods cannot be sold, licensed, or rented for a fee, nor can Mods contain features that would support monetary transactions of any type.

What are some realistic mods for Sims 4?

For anyone interested in making their Sims experience as real as it can be, here are the some awesome mods for increased realism..
Automatic Beards..
Personality Please! ... .
SNB – Sim National Bank. ... .
More Best Friends. ... .
Risky Woohoo & Try For Baby Chances. ... .
Pregnancy Overhaul Mod. ... .
Miscarriage Chance. ... .
Realistic Reactions. ... .