Life simulator games you can play online free

“Life simulator” covers a lot of games. Some hand you a whole life in ten minutes of tapping. Some give you a house and a family and leave you to it for months. Some are about one person, one place and one problem. If you want one you can play online for free, the first question is simple: does it run in a browser, or do you have to download something?

Here are our picks, with what we checked about each. They are our picks, not a league table.

Quick comparison

Free in your browser

AJ Cities

Our own game, so take this entry knowing that. AJ Cities is a free open-world game in your web browser, on a phone or a computer, with nothing to install. It is for adults, 18+.

It simulates one life rather than many. You are AJ, deported from London and two weeks back in Lagos, starting with Room 3 in Iloro House and an empty wallet. The life-sim parts are the everyday ones:

• Health and food. Food, snacks and medicine restore your health. Chuks’s coal pot, the restaurant at No. 1 and Sarge’s window at the gate all sell something. The clinic at No. 5 treats you free. The dogs at No. 8 are best avoided.
• Money. You earn ₦1,000 a break as a ball boy at the street football in the bush, and you can bet on the match with that story money.
• Debts. The gate police want ₦2,500,000 before they open the north gate, paid a little at a time. Your neighbour Dozie will borrow ₦500 from you and pay back ₦50.
• Time. The sky follows the real Lagos sun, and people keep their routines. The medical student at No. 5 leaves for the hospital on weekday mornings; music starts at Prizm every night from 9 pm.

It also has a live multiplayer side, a virtual estate party inside the game where signed-in adults make their own character and meet other players. That is optional; AJ’s story needs no sign-in at all. How to play covers both.

Torn

Torn is a text-based online RPG set in Torn City. You build a character from scratch, take jobs, invest, travel and join factions with other players. Its own site says it is completely free and has no advertising. It runs in a browser. It is more menus than streets, but it is a life sim in the sense that matters: you choose how to spend your days, and your choices add up.

Free, but an app or a download

BitLife

BitLife, by Candywriter, LLC, is the best-known life simulator on phones. It is free to download on the App Store and Google Play, with adverts and optional purchases, and the App Store rates it 18+. It is text-based: you are born, you grow up, and every tap is a choice about school, work, love or crime. We could not find an official browser version; see BitLife online for what that means.

The Sims 4

EA made The Sims 4 base game free to download in October 2022, on PC and Mac through the EA app and Steam, and on PlayStation and Xbox. Expansion packs and other packs cost money. It is the slowest and most detailed life sim here: you build a house, raise a household and live through their days. It is not a browser game; it is a big download.

Worth paying for

Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley was made by Eric Barone, who works as ConcernedApe, and came out on PC in February 2016. It later reached Mac, Linux, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch and mobile. You inherit your late grandfather’s run-down farm and start a new life in a small town: crops, fishing, friendships, and a big company that has changed the old ways. It is paid, not free, but it is the life sim a lot of people recommend first.

Browser or download: what difference does it make?

A browser game opens in a tab. There is nothing to install, it works on a borrowed laptop, and when you close the tab it is gone from the machine. The trade-off is that the biggest, most detailed life sims, The Sims 4 above all, still need a proper download and a fair bit of storage. Apps like BitLife sit in between: small, quick, but tied to a phone or tablet and its store account. If you are on a phone with little space or a slow connection, a light browser game is often the kinder choice. AJ Cities was built phone first for exactly that reason.

How to choose

Ask yourself what you want the game to simulate:

1. A whole life, fast? BitLife.
2. A household, slowly? The Sims 4.
3. A quieter life somewhere new? Stardew Valley.
4. A life among other real players, in text? Torn.
5. One life with a story, in a city you can walk around, free in a browser? AJ Cities.

And if what you really want is the story, see our picks of games like BitLife, but with a real story, or life simulation games set outside America.

Can I play a life simulator in my browser for free?

Yes. AJ Cities and Torn both run in a web browser and are free to play. BitLife and The Sims 4 are free too, but as an app or a download.

Is The Sims 4 free?

The base game has been free to download since October 2022 on PC, Mac, PlayStation and Xbox. Expansion packs and other packs are still paid.

What does AJ Cities simulate?

One man’s first weeks back in Lagos: eating to stay healthy, earning money at the street football, and paying off a ₦2,500,000 debt to the gate police.