The numbers are in, and it turns out that basically everyone is playing "The Sims 4". In an announcement released yesterday, EA announced that "The Sims 4" is officially the "most widely played game in franchise history" with over 70 million people having played it.

Well, that's good news. But there is more frightening news. Since the release of the "Growing Together" expansion pack, which includes "Infant Life Stages," The Sims 4 has gained "over 8.6 million infant sims in the game."

This is a veritable army of babies, and the update does not even mention how many of them are abnormal, stretchy, slender babies (opens in new tab).

On the other hand, the San Sequoia map included in the Growing Together expansion has 1.7 million households built (which would equate to about 5 babies per household, which seems extremely pre-modern). Players have also reached 27.1 million milestones across all platforms (including 12.2 million infant milestones).

That "The Sims 4" is a fairly popular game is not unexpected news, but the size of the player base is a bit surprising: 70 million players is, well, quite a lot. It's more than the population of France (open in new tab) or the United Kingdom (open in new tab). In fact, judging from this page on Wikipedia (opens in new tab), there are only 19 countries on earth with a larger population than "The Sims 4."

My point is this: give Maxis a seat on the UN Security Council.

"The Sims" will continue to attract millions of people for some time to come, but it will face some competition in the near future. Paradox's "Life by You" (opens in new tab), a "Sims"-like game from the former head of EA's "Sims" label, promises to be "one of the most moddable and open life simulation games" ever made. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing which nuclear powers the population will eventually surpass.