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For 26 years, the life-sims genre has been dominated by one series: The Sims. Originally designed by Will Wright, creator of Sim City, EA’s virtual dollhouse series has grown into a $5bn [£3.8bn] empire with the constant release of new games, expansion packs, and collaborations cementing its place among the bestselling video game franchises of all time. But things are beginning to change. New contenders are emerging and turning the heads of even loyal players in The Sims community.

The most recent, and promising, of these is Paralives, once the solo project of indie designer Alex Massé, who is now employing a small team of developers. Released on the PC games platform Steam in May 2026 as an early access title (meaning it’s technically unfinished and looking for user feedback), it sold 250,000 copies in just eight hours. On that first day, the concurrent player count hit 78,603 – not far off The Sims 4’s all-time peak of 96,328 in 2022. While Paralives is a small project, this success is understandable. Following the news of EA’s controversial acquisition by a Saudi-backed business consortium, some simmers are looking for what they see as a more ethical alternative. But this is only part of the game’s appeal. The real draw is the game’s focus on creativity over realism: the quirky details that made many fans fall in love with The Sims in the first place.

What is Paralives?

Paralives is a life simulation game in which you puppet-master a virtual world, controlling the lives and homes of your simulated people, called Parafolk, much like you do in The Sims or fellow newcomer Inzoi. Players can create and fully customise characters, adjusting their hair, skin tones, height, body shapes and more (without gender constraints), and even add realistic features such as cellulite, freckles, birthmarks and medical apparatus, such as hearing aids.

Even in early access, there’s a welcome breadth of representation and body inclusivity on display – especially compared to Inzoi, which drew criticisms for its lack of diversity. On the other hand, while EA has improved the representation of The Sims’ customisation options, this push has generally come in the last few years and there are still requested customisation features, such as hijabs (present in Paralives), that rely on creator mods.

With your household created, you can then move your Parafolk into a home. Paralives’ building and decorating tools are impressive, and not simply because of the range of architectural options, furnishings and detailed knick-knacks, such as scatter cushions, coffee mugs and house plants. Instead, it’s the quality-of-life features that stand out here – and highlight the limitations of its competitors. While The Sims building restricts where items can be placed, Paralives lets you put items almost anywhere, giving you control over their height, length and width. So, if you have a set of curtains that can’t quite fit your window, you can widen them until they do. There’s also a focus on personalisation, with items featuring text, such as gravestones and doormats, editable to your liking, picture frames that you can your upload your own images into and a decor section for “medical clutter” that includes a wheelchair, sign language book and sanitary products.

However, what may irk some about Paralives is its art and animation style, which has proven somewhat controversial. Rather than the hyper-realistic approach Inzoi takes, Paralives features heavily shaded, comic-book style animation reminiscent of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. This may not be to everyone’s taste, but it lends itself well to the game’s quirky gameplay design. Paralives is full of weird little details that make it feel more akin to The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 than modern iterations. From the way your character butters bread or fries an egg, to the secret town hall maze, and random meteor showers, Paralives isn’t afraid to lean into the absurd. By comparison, Inzoi can feel too sterile at times and The Sims series has gradually reduced these oddball features with each release – remember when you could party with Drew Carey?

Is Paralives an ethical alternative to The Sims?

Paralives’ early access release couldn’t have come at a better time for life sim fans. In 2025, EA announced it had agreed to a $55bn buyout deal by private equity firm Silver Lake, investment firm Affinity Partners (headed up by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner) and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF (controlled by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is widely believed to have orchestrated the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi).

The news understandably sent ripples through The Sims community – known for its LGBTQ+ inclusion – with some players boycotting the franchise over Saudi Arabia’s severe human rights restrictions and fears over how the acquisition would impact the game’s queer content. This is further compounded by the increasing frustration of some in the community that recent expansion packs (which cost £35 each) have been short on content.

By contrast, Paralives is from an independent studio, with development heavily influenced by community feedback and no corporate involvement. Paralives began in 2019 as a solo project by Montreal-based designer Massé, with development funded through crowdfunding platform Patreon, through which the developer (in 2020) was receiving nearly $40,000 a month from almost 9,000 Patreons. The team, now known as Paralives Studio, has now grown to about 15 people and the game is priced at £33.50, with additional downloadable content set to be released via free updates. According to the developer’s roadmap, this content will include changing seasons, customisable pets, gardening and more – all of which are available in The Sims 4, through paid-for expansion packs.

While Paralives may be a bit rough in places, its community-driven focus and quirkiness hark back to a time when The Sims felt like it belonged to the players. Life sim fans who miss the absurdity of The Sims 2, should perhaps consider moving in.

• Paralives is available in early access on Steam, for PC and Mac