Sims Fans Should Brace Themselves for January 20

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Players of the popular life simulation game, The Sims, are facing the end of an era. The Sims Mobile will officially shut down on January 20th. While the game has been around for a while, and plans to discontinue it have been in motion for months, those still enjoying it should prepare to say goodbye before the new year.

Originally created by Maxis and later developed by Firemonkeys Studios and now Slingshot, The Sims Mobile launched on March 6, 2018. The game aims to bring the classic Sims experience to mobile devices, letting players create detailed characters, build and decorate homes, and complete everyday activities. It also adds more ways to connect with other players and uses an energy system common in mobile games to manage playtime.

When Does The Sims Mobile Shut Down

Image via EA

  • January 20, 2026, at 1:59 p.m. UTC.

The popular mobile game The Sims Mobile is coming to an end. Publisher Electronic Arts announced it will shut down the game’s servers permanently on January 20, 2026, at 1:59 p.m. UTC, meaning players will no longer be able to play. This will conclude the game’s nearly eight-year run.

Image via EA

The process of shutting down the game happened in stages. When the shutdown was announced on October 20th, the developers made some changes to benefit players: they gave everyone unlimited energy and turned off the ability to buy more with real money, which had previously been used to replenish energy. The next day, the game was removed from app stores, meaning new players couldn’t download it. Then, on January 6th, a final update gave current players access to all the game’s features – everything in Create-a-Sim and Build Mode was unlocked – as a way to thank those who continued playing until the very end.

Image via EA

Although one Sims game is ending, mobile Sims games aren’t going away completely. The Sims Mobile wasn’t the first official game on mobile – The Sims FreePlay launched over six years earlier. The Sims FreePlay offers a more open-ended, creative experience and, surprisingly, it’s still available on both Apple and Android devices – it’s actually lasted longer than The Sims Mobile. EA recently showed its support for The Sims FreePlay with a special update to celebrate The Sims‘ 25th anniversary, adding features like improved lighting and special in-game events. The Sims Mobile didn’t receive similar attention during this milestone year.

Image via EA

As a huge Sims fan, I’m getting so excited about what’s coming! It’s now official: Project Rene, which we’ve been hearing about for ages, is going to be a mobile game, and they’re planning to release it before the end of 2025. For a long time, people thought it was actually going to be The Sims 5, but we haven’t heard anything official about that yet. EA hasn’t shared many details about Project Rene, but they’ve described it as a life simulation game where you can play with friends on mobile, which makes me think it might be similar to The Sims Mobile before it was taken down. They’ve only shown one tiny screenshot so far – just a few Sims hanging out – but they’ve promised to share more throughout 2026, and I can’t wait to learn more!

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2026-01-13 22:40