How The Sims became the internet’s most exciting place to eat

In the last year, Kayla Sims began raising her own cows and chickens. She did a bit of traveling, trying dishes like bhel puri, tuna maki rolls, beef yakisoba and feijoada for the first time. She even did some cooking; one day, she made a crown roast and baked a birthday cake shaped like a hamburger.

But she didn’t need a farm or an airline ticket or a stove — just The Sims, the long-running video game that allows players to create characters, called Sims, and build a virtual life around them, from the houses they live in to the clothes they wear to the jobs they work.

For Ms. Sims (yes, that’s her birth name), one of the most enjoyable parts of the game has been the chance to learn more about cooking, farming, foraging and cuisines from across the world — all from the comfort of her desk in Oviedo, Fla., where she streams herself playing The Sims on YouTube and Twitch under the username lilsimsie. “There’s just no way you could have experienced all of those things in your lifetime,” said Ms. Sims, 22. But by playing The Sims, “you learn about a lot of other foods that you’ve never seen before. And I think that everyone probably has that experience.” Millions of players around the world log in each day to create Sims avatars and watch their lives play out in vivid fashion. The game’s popularity has only grown throughout the pandemic; Simmers, as fans call themselves, racked up 1.2 billion hours of play in 2021.

Part of that new and, for some, renewed interest may stem from a simple need to fight off boredom. But much of the game’s appeal can be chalked up to players’ ability to create an increasingly exacting vision of how their Sims live, dress and eat. In early versions of the game, food was used simply to satisfy Hunger, one of a handful of basic needs that every character has, or to add an element of exoticism when Sims travelled to new locales. But The Sims 4, released by the game developer Maxis in 2014, expanded the depth and realism of how players can interact with food.

“I think The Sims 4 was really where we made this conscious effort to recognize that food is more than a place,” said Lyndsay Pearson, a VP on the creative side of The Sims. Many Simmers cite the “City Living” expansion pack, a 2016 upgrade, as a major turning point for the game — it made food something to explore and learn about. Players could take their Sims to food stands, where they could not only encounter foods like pork adobo, tagine and goi cuon, but also learn to tolerate spicy foods, use chopsticks properly and, ultimately, gain the ability to make those foods at home.

Today, Sims can own and operate a restaurant or cafe, design menus and hire and fire employees. They can work their way up from assistant dishwasher (earning 15 Simoleons per hour) to celebrity chef (410 Simoleons) in the Culinary career track, or become professional food critics.

They can be vegetarian or lactose intolerant, and most Sims children go through a picky-eating phase. Sims with the Foodie personality trait, one of nearly 60 characteristics that players can choose when they create a Sim, pride themselves on eating good food, and can watch cooking shows for inspiration. They can invite friends over for a wienie roast in their backyard fire pit, order delivery from a Sims service called Zoomers, forage for rare ingredients in nearby Granite Falls or join with family members to prepare a meal. All told, there are more than 300 dishes that Sims can try or cook across more than a dozen game upgrades.