The best life sims on Switch and Switch 2

Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, and Stardew Valley are the best places to start. Each one is on the Nintendo eShop, and each one also runs on Switch 2. The table below lists more, with the price the US eShop shows.

We show the regular prices from the US eShop in October 2026. Sales change them often, so check the store before you buy. "Yes" means that the eShop page marks the Switch game as supported on Switch 2.

Start with the part of daily life that you want to play. Each kind of life sim gives you a different day.

• A village and neighbors. Play Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The time and the season in the game match the real world, so you visit a little each day.
• A farm. Play Stardew Valley first. It is the cheapest farm game here. For a new farm game, try Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, where you sell your crops at a weekly market.
• Friends and drama. Play Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. You make Miis of people you know. Then you watch them make friends, fight, and fall in love.
• A family. My Time at Sandrock lets you marry and have children. Stardew Valley lets you marry and have children too.
• A town to build. Play Pokémon Pokopia on Switch 2, or My Time at Sandrock. In Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, you rebuild whole villages, but you also fight monsters.

Fae Farm went offline on September 10, 2025. Its eShop page says that online play ended, but the single-player mode stays. For more life sims on every platform, read our list of the best life sim games.

Palia is the only free game in the table. The eShop calls it a free-to-play life sim. You craft, build a home, and make friends with villagers, and you see other players in the same world.

Stardew Valley and Cozy Grove are the cheapest paid picks, at $14.99 each. Stardew Valley lets up to four players share one farm. Cozy Grove gives you 30 to 60 minutes of new tasks each real day, so it suits short visits.

Both also get a free Switch 2 Edition. If you own the Switch game, the upgrade costs nothing on the eShop.

Look at the ESRB rating on the eShop page. These games have an E (Everyone) rating: Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, Pokémon Pokopia, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Hello Kitty Island Adventure, Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, and MySims: Cozy Bundle.

Stardew Valley, Cozy Grove, Fae Farm, My Time at Sandrock, and Palia have an E10+ rating. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma has a T (Teen) rating.

For young children, start with Hello Kitty Island Adventure or Animal Crossing. Both are rated E, and the eShop pages of both say that family and friends can play together.

Not a main Sims game. The Sims 4 is on PC, Mac, PlayStation, and Xbox. In January 2024, the Sims team said that EA had no plans to release The Sims 4 on Nintendo's platform.

The only Sims game on the Switch eShop is MySims: Cozy Bundle. It came out on November 19, 2024. It holds MySims and MySims Kingdom, two Wii games with a cute art style. You rebuild a town and help its people. You do not run a family's life like in The Sims.

BitLife is not on Switch either. It is a phone game on the App Store and Google Play, and the Switch eShop does not list it.

No. LifeSim is a free life sim that runs in a browser on your phone or computer. It is set on a real map of Earth, and the people there talk back in your own words. It has no farm and no island to decorate. Read more about the life simulator, or compare it with other games in life sim games.

Is there a new Tomodachi Life on Switch?

Yes. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream came out on April 16, 2026. It costs $59.99 on the US eShop.

Do Switch life sims play on Switch 2?

Every Switch game in our table is marked as supported on Switch 2. Some also have a Switch 2 Edition with better graphics or mouse controls.

Is Pokémon Pokopia on the first Switch?

No. The eShop lists it for Switch 2 only.

Is My Time at Portia on Switch?

Yes. It costs $29.99 on the US eShop. My Time at Sandrock is the newer game in the series.

Is The Sims 4 free on Switch?

The Sims 4 is not on Switch. It is free on PC, Mac, PlayStation, and Xbox.

• The best life sim games in 2026
• Best simulation games
• Life sims you can play in your browser
• AI life simulator games
• AI games
• Games where you can talk to AI
• AI roleplay
• AI character generator
• Story games
• Text based games
• Dating sim games
• Game where you live a life
• Game where you can do anything
• Games to play when bored
• Make your own superhero game
• Games like The Sims
• Games like BitLife
• Games like Stardew Valley
• Games like Animal Crossing
• Games like Tomodachi Life
• Tomodachi Life
• Tomodachi Life personality chart
• Is there a Tomodachi Life 2?
• What does NPC mean?
• Games like IMVU
• Games like Second Life

• Nintendo: Animal Crossing: New Horizons
• Nintendo: Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
• Nintendo: Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream
• Nintendo: Stardew Valley
• Nintendo: Stardew Valley: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Upgrade Pack
• Nintendo: Pokémon Pokopia
• Nintendo: Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar
• Nintendo: Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma
• Nintendo: Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home Special Edition
• Nintendo: Fae Farm
• Nintendo: Disney Dreamlight Valley
• Nintendo: Hello Kitty Island Adventure
• Nintendo: My Time at Sandrock
• Nintendo: My Time at Portia
• Nintendo: Cozy Grove
• Nintendo: MySims: Cozy Bundle
• Nintendo: Palia
• Stardew Valley Wiki: Children
• Siliconera: Fae Farm going offline
• EA: The Sims 4
• Dexerto: The Sims 4 devs clarify Nintendo Switch release plans
• Siliconera: Two MySims games head to Switch in MySims Cozy Bundle
• BitLife on the App Store
• BitLife on Google Play