Think back ten years and there's probably quite a few things you remember but did you know that EA has announced the celebration of the ten year anniversary of The Sims?  That's right - since its debut on February 4 in 2000 there have been three core games (The Sims, The Sims 2 and The Sims 3) and multiple expansion and add-on packs.

“The success of The Sims is something gamers and the gaming business as a whole can be proud of. With its charming and quirky style, lovely emergent game mechanics and user created creativity that delights every day, The Sims is a game that can be enjoyed by everybody and reflects what you put into it,” explained Rod Humble, Head of the EA Play label. “The future of The Sims is going to be a lot of fun; it is rare for an entertainment franchise to be gaining momentum a decade after release, so this is a particularly pleasant moment for everyone who has worked on the games.”

“No other game in the history of electronic entertainment has ever had the broad, nearly universal appeal of The Sims franchise,” says Logan Decker, Editor-in-Chief of PC Gamer magazine. “Everybody plays it: hardcore gamers, young women, celebrities, conservatives, professors, soldiers, grandmothers, even people who say they don’t like computer games. And the game—or, rather, the experience—has thrived throughout 10 years of sequels and countless expansion packs because EA has kept the environment fresh and infinitely customizable while never getting in the way of the game’s primary focus—the player’s imagination, and the natural inclination of all human beings to create meaningful stories.”

There's certainly no doubting the popularity of The Sims: the franchise has generated more than $2.5 billion of revenue, selling over 125 million units of The Sims games, expansions and add-on packs in the last ten years.  Available in 60 countries and in 22 languages, it has seen worldwide enjoyment. The community website www.thesims3.com, welcomes up to six million unique visitors monthly, handles 300 content downloads every minute and more than 1.8 million uploads have been made to date, including 20 movies each hour.

So, the next time you load up your copy of whichever The Sims game you're playing, don't forget to toast your little people on their tenth birthday!