The best Sims 4 mods can expand an already big game in extraordinary ways. New mods appear all the time on ModTheSims —which has long been the go-to hub for creators—every week. There, you’ll find everything from minor tweaks to complete reworks of major systems. Some modders, including LittleMsSam and KawaiiStacie , have even got so popular that they've created bespoke websites for their growing list of creations.

The biggest challenge with Sims 4 mods is determining which ones still work. Some mods are faithfully updated, but others have broken over time with new patches and features added by EA.

With that in mind, here’s a collection of the top up-to-date mods for The Sims 4, from the tiny to the virtual life-changing. Make sure you read the installation instructions for each one, and check for any conflicts to make sure you’re not running two that will clash.

To get even more out of the game check out our round-up of the best Sims 4 expansions and game packs . If you want immortal Sims, free houses, and infinite money, check out our list of Sims 4 cheats .

How to install Sims 4 mods

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, download the mod you'd like to use. Find your download with a file explorer and simply drag and drop or copy and paste it into your Sims 4 "Mods" folder. The game should create one for you after you've played for a couple minutes, which you can find in your Documents folder under "The Sims 4" and "Mods".

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

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 Robots group of traits lets you spawn human-machine hybrid Sims, or just full-on robots who must visit a recharging station every few hours.

There are tonnes of traits available on ModTheSims —you can grab individual traits or packages of traits, like this wide-ranging collection from modder KawaiiStacie, or this selection of hobby-themed traits, which makes your sims artisans, horticulturalists or movie buffs.

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

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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.

Melanin Pack 2

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The second version of Xmiramira's darker skin tones pack comes with some improvements on original colors and new makeup. No longer will you suffer a greyish pallor for your darker skinned sims. The skin options available in the Melanin Pack add a ton of vibrant options.

Build and Buy Mode mods

Ravasheen's bunk beds mod (Image credit: Ravasheen)

Bunk Beds

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Sims 4 has seen two DLCs that would have been perfect for bunk beds come and go. We didn't get them in the Discover University expansion nor the Tiny Living stuff pack. Fortunately, prolific Sim stuff modder Ravasheen is on the case and has created working bunk beds that can be oriented in several configurations. Its a perfect way to squeeze bigger families into your tiny house projects. You can even tuck tiny desks beneath your lofted bed.

Live Mode mods

roBurky's Meaningful Stories mod (Image credit: EA)

Life's Drama

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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 simply enjoy watching it all unfold or, if you're feeling like a good Samaritan, help an NPC in need, such as somebody who's being terrorized by a rowdy gang. Don't worry: you'll be rewarded for your time. 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 .

Slice Of Life

Download link

Another of KawaiiStacie's mods is this immersive mod that adds physical changes to Sims as their emotions change. They can blush when flirting or drunk, get teary-eyed when sad, and have dirty hands when they really need to wash them like, now.

That's just the start of what this mod can do though. There's an interactive conversation system with dialogue options, the ability to get drunk, and personality types based on the 16 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test. It's a pretty huge overhaul that adds a lot more emotion and quirks for all your Sims.

The Explore mod

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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

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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.

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.

Modder roBurky has other features in the pipeline, which you can read about on the mod page .

SimDa Dating App

Download link

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

Read more Make sure your sims look awesome with the best gaming PCs right now.

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.

KawaiiStacie's Playable School Events mod (Image credit: KawaiiStacie)

Playable School Events

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Another mod by Kawaiistacie lets you actually play your child Sims when they attend school. Kids can get grades, study, and do their classwork alongside other children. They can also build skills and even get promoted to a new grade. Going to school counts as an event, so if you'd like your kids to go on their own without a parent you'll also need another mod for starting events at all ages.

Custom food interactions

Download link

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.

Some players are having trouble with custom food since the June 2019 patch, but it seems to be fixable by deleting specific recipes, usually the jambalaya from Louisiana Style Recipes 2—just delete the jambalaya.package file (Heart Cookies is another potential red flag).

Have Some Personality Please!

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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.

Become a Sorcerer

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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.



Turbo Careers

Download link

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 all available careers here and the venue requirements for every job here.

Replacement paintings

Download link

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

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Another mod bringing The Sims closer to real life is one from PolarBearSims. It introduces a chance that female Sims who WooHoo rather than explicitly Try for Baby will still fall pregnant. 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 artulwww’s Pregnancy Mega Mod, which lets you do things like give birth to quintuplets.

Utility mods

UI Cheats Extension

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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 link

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!

Hum along Enjoy the Sims 4's wonderfully jaunty soundtrack with the best gaming headsets out there.

MC Command Center

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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

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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 here

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.