Game · 2000 onward
Will Wright made a game with no goal, no score and no way to win, about a household doing chores — and it dethroned Myst as the best-selling PC game of all time in barely two years.
The Sims was released in February 2000, and within slightly more than two years Electronic Arts announced that it had overtaken Myst to become the best-selling PC game of all time, having shipped more than 6.3 million copies. The American figures show how sustained the success was rather than merely explosive. It was the best-selling computer game in the United States in 2000, with domestic sales of 1.77 million units and revenues of $72.9 million — and then it was the country's number one computer title again in 2001, selling a further 1.48 million units for another $60.4 million. Games do not usually get bigger in their second year. What makes this remarkable is what the game actually is. The Sims has no victory condition, no score, no antagonist and no narrative. The player manages a household: they cook, they clean, they go to the toilet, they go to work, they fail to make friends. It sold to an audience — substantially female, substantially not previously playing games — that the industry had spent two decades assuming did not exist. Will Wright received the International Game Developers Association's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001, and the franchise has since sold well over 100 million copies.