Fans of The Sims franchise of life simulator games are about to witness the end of an era as The Sims Mobile prepares for its complete shutdown on January 20. It’s been a long road for The Sims‘ second mobile game, as shutdown efforts have been ongoing for several months, but those who are still playing should be prepared to say goodbye well before the end of January.
Originally developed by Maxis, with those duties later being taken over by Firemonkeys Studios and now Slingshot, The Sims Mobile was released on March 6, 2018. Attempting to provide an authentic mobile experience that reflects the way the mainline Sims series lets players live a normal life inside a game, it featured many of the series’ standard features, like in-depth character creation, house building and decorating, and normal, everyday tasks. However, it also gave players more in-depth ways to interact with one another and incorporated an energy-based system for playtime that’s much more common in mobile gaming.
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When Does The Sims Mobile Shut Down
- January 20, 2026, at 1:59 p.m. UTC.
But the portable life simulator is now in its final days. Publisher Electronic Arts announced back in October that it would be shutting down The Sims Mobile on January 20, 2026, at 1:59 p.m. UTC, as its servers will be shut off completely with no plans in the works to start them back up again. That move will mark the final note in the game’s history just shy of eight years since its release.
The road to the game’s shutdown has been handled in multiple steps. At the time of its announcement on October 20, The Sims Mobile‘s development team changed the game’s format in players’ favor, providing them with an infinite amount of energy and disabling their ability to make in-app purchases, which had historically been used to restore energy. The following day, the game was taken out of availability on Google Play and the App Store, essentially locking out anyone who hadn’t already downloaded it. Finally, the latest update on January 6 flooded those who are still playing with a ton of additional content, unlocking access to the entire list of Create-a-Sim and Build Mode options, providing a last hurrah for players who have stuck it out until the end.
While this does mean the end of one game’s lifetime, it’s far from a complete cancellation of mobile Sims games. The launch of The Sims Mobile was predated by another official mobile game, The Sims FreePlay, by more than six years. Although it features less storyline-based content and sticks to a more open-ended experience that benefits from players’ creativity and imagination, it has also outlived its successor, as it’s still up and running on both iOS and Android devices. And despite its age, EA has shown its commitment to its players within the last year, including a special update for it during last year’s The Sims 25th anniversary celebrations. These anniversary updates included the addition of dynamic lighting sources, realistic soft shadows, and a series of special in-game events, while The Sims Mobile was generally passed over for special content during the milestone year.
Additionally, the franchise is clearly ramping up to some big surprises for mobile gamers. Less than a week ago, EA and Maxis confirmed that the long-awaited Project Rene will be a mobile game, confirming information that had leaked before the end of 2025. Though originally believed by many to be the code name for The Sims 5, a game that has still not been announced, official confirmations of details are still pretty scarce about Project Rene, though EA’s description of it as a “social, collaborative, mobile-first life-sim game,” could indicate that it will possess many of the same features as The Sims Mobile before its shutdown. Only a single screenshot from The Sims Labs has been released, depicting a few Sims standing around an outdoor communal area, but EA and Maxis plan to release more information about it throughout 2026.
