Best Sims 2 expansion packs

Looking for the best Sims 2 expansions? Although The Sims 2 is over 20 years old, it's a cherished title, with players flocking to the 25th Birthday Bundle release. If you're wondering which expansion to dive into first, we have all the best Sims 2 expansions ranked below.

8. The Sims 2: Pets

Although it’s at the bottom of the list, The Sims 2: Pets is by no means a bad expansion. It introduces over 30 breeds of cats, 72 breeds of dogs, birds, guinea pigs (known in-game as womrats), and skunks that can occasionally visit lots and get into mischief.

Crucially, if you’re a fan of the occult, the expansion also introduces werewolves into the game via the ‘Leader of the Pack’ NPC that can visit your lot and bite Sims. However, beyond the mechanics around adopting, breeding, and training pets, there isn't a huge amount of content to get to grips with.

Although many of us cannot comprehend a complete family without the addition of pets, it is just that — an addition. The Sims 2: Pets is a fantastic companion expansion to have if you have the extra cash to spend, but there isn't enough content to occupy you for long. At least, compared to the other expansions on this list.

7. The Sims 2: Bon Voyage

The Sims 2: Bon Voyage allows you to whisk your Sims away for a vacation at one of three possible destinations: Twikkii Island, Takemizu Village, and Three Lakes. Each offers a unique setting, holiday activities, and a secret vacation lot to discover once you locate the associated ancient map. If you’re lucky, you may even bump into a bigfoot and invite him home to live with you. You can live vicariously through your Sims and collect souvenirs, go on tours, or even purchase a vacation home and make your stay semi-permanent.

Playing through each of the three vacation spots is immensely fun, if a bit gimmicky. Whilst I love the idea of my Sims having a trip away, there isn't a whole lot of replayability value. After experiencing each destination once, there isn't a compelling reason to return.

6. The Sims 2: Nightlife

The Sims 2: Nightlife introduces many fundamentals to the game like restaurants, dates, a ‘Downtown’ neighborhood where Sims can go clubbing, and the ability to own cars. The pack also offers an attraction system where you can select ‘turn-ons’ and ‘turn-offs’ for your Sim. This system helps deepen Sim’s connections with one another and adds some realism to the game.

The Sims 2: Nightlife also includes a wealth of build mode items, vampires, and some of the franchise's most iconic NPCs like the Gypsy Matchmaker and Mrs Crumplebottom. You’ll often find Mrs Crumplebottom stalking through nightclubs attacking Sims with her handbag if they dare to flirt too brazenly in public. 

It’s hard to comprehend a time when The Sims 2 shipped without the ability to take Sims out for dates, as it feels like an essential gameplay feature. In a way, it feels as though The Sims 2: Nightlife should have been part of the base game experience, rather than an expansion.

5. The Sims 2: FreeTime

The main draw of The Sims 2: FreeTime is the 10 new hobbies and five new careers it adds to the base game. These hobbies come with an ‘Enthusiasm’ system which measures how much a Sim likes a particular hobby (note that this is different to skill level. A Sim may be skilled in Cooking, for example, but be less enthused about it).

Along with this, the expansion adds new hobby-related furniture, the Genie NPC, the BFF friendship milestone, and the ability to age up non-playable Sims when your main Sim has a birthday. This essentially means that your Sims can have childhood friends that age with them and continue their friendships into adult life.

The pack also has a ‘Lifetime Aspiration’ bar. The more consistently happy your Sims are over time, the more points they can trade in for rewards. As such, The Sims 2: FreeTime is a great expansion to delve into if you’ve exhausted the original Sim careers or hobbies and wish to simply have more things for your Sims to do.

4. The Sims 2: Apartment Life

Now we have werewolves and vampires, let's throw some witches into the mix, shall we? Unlike the other occult Sims, witches feel a tad more fleshed-out by the fact that you can slowly learn spells and choose to focus on good, neutral, or evil magics. I know occult Sims aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I had a fantastic time cursing my neighbor after they started a fight with my Sim. Be careful who you make an enemy of — especially if they're wandering around with green skin and a pointy hat.

Of course, the main draw of The Sims 2: Apartment Life is the ability to rent apartments and find roommates to help you out with the bills. This sort of gameplay is a fantastic basis for any rags-to-riches enthusiasts. Instead of launching into a 20-30k home, you start from the lower rungs of the property ladder. The expansion also introduces a social class system to determine the wealth of a neighborhood. From this, certain ‘Social Group Townies’ will populate areas, fitting into the following categories: Gearheads, Bohemians, Jocks, Techs, and Socialites. Each group has distinctive personality markers and serve to diversify and add some depth to bog-standard townies.

The Sims 2: Apartment Life adds a lot of content to the existing game and provides hours of entertainment, even if you only go through the apartment system once in a playthrough.

3. The Sims 2: Seasons

If you’re sick of being in perpetual spring, The Sims 2: Seasons can be just the thing to revitalize your gameplay. As the name would suggest, it brings all four seasons to the game and introduces dynamic weather. With this comes extreme temperatures and a new outerwear clothing category.

Although this is a feature that will tick over in the background, it instantly makes your Sim neighborhoods feel more alive. Perhaps more importantly, The Sims 2: Seasons brings with it fishing and gardening, which most players would deem essential pastimes. 

The Sims 2: Seasons additionally adds six new careers to the game: Adventurer, Education, Gamer, Law, Music and Journalism. It also adds Plant-sims and an adorable penguin NPC that can visit your lot during snowy weather. With added weather-based interactions like snowball fights, water balloon fights, bug catching, snow angels and much more, The Sims 2: Seasons is especially satisfying when playing as a family. I do wish, however, that we had more holiday-based gameplay, similar to the calendar and festivities that came with The Sims 4: Seasons.

2. The Sims 2: Open for Business

Although it may not be to everyone’s taste, one of my favourite things to do in any Sims game is run my own business and turn a small shop into an enterprise. I could spend hours upon hours within The Sims 2: Open for Business as it allows you to do just that. You can create a business at home or buy a lot and turn it into a shop, restaurant or even a pet store (if you also have The Sims 2: Pets installed).

With the business management mechanics, you can hire employees, set a dress code, pitch sales to buyers and run them up at a cash register. The better your performance, the more business perks you can buy to upgrade your shop.

If you don’t have an interest in running a business, this pack also introduces Servos (robot butlers that you can build and then program to cook, clean or repair objects) shopping districts, flower arranging, toy making, and a wealth of build mode items (over 120 new objects).

1. The Sims 2: University

When getting bang for your buck, The Sims 2: University is the best Sims 2 expansion. It was the first to introduce the Young Adult life stage to the game which, in turn, lengthens the amount of time you have with Sims before they move on. 

The Sims 2: University gives you a choice of three university neighborhoods: Sim State University, La Fiesta Tech and Académie Le Tour. At these, your Young Adult Sim can choose to live in dorms (which function similarly to apartments), private residences or Greek houses. Four new careers come with this pack and your student Sim can choose from eleven different majors. When graduating, depending on the major they chose, they can receive a boost up the corporate ladder and start in their chosen career ahead of other Sims. 

There is much to do when at university. You can join a sorority or fraternity, delve into the mysteries of the secret societies, join study groups, host parties, perform pranks and much more. The expansion also introduced zombies to the game via the new paranormal career. The Sims 2: University has hours of content available and with an entire new life stage, the replayability value of this pack is incredible. The chances are that most players with this pack will send their teens to university and will get different experiences each time.

The rounds up our list of all eight Sims 2 expansion packs ranked from worst to best. If you’re looking to spice up your gameplay, see our guide to all the ways to kill Sims in The Sims 2, all WooHoo locations, or our list of the best Sims 2 cheats and console commands.

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