# What is the best Will Wright game?

> Cities, ant colonies, whole planets and one very needy household: this designer kept handing players a sandbox and walking away. Some of these sold by the millions, others live on as cult experiments.

*By YPB Team · Published October 31, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-will-wright-game*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **The Sims** — score 1000/1000
   The 2000 life simulation about managing virtual households, which became one of the best-selling PC franchises ever.
2. **SimCity** — score 756/1000
   Will Wright's 1989 city-building simulator that launched the Sim series and the whole sandbox management genre.
3. **SimLife** — score 517/1000
   A 1992 artificial-life sandbox that lets players design organisms and ecosystems from genetic building blocks.
4. **SimEarth** — score 517/1000
   A 1990 planetary simulation inspired by the Gaia hypothesis, where players shape a whole world's climate and life.
5. **SimCopter** — score 423/1000
   A 1996 helicopter game set inside cities built in SimCity 2000, flown on rescue and police missions.
6. **SimAnt** — score 423/1000
   A 1991 simulation of an ant colony battling rival red ants for control of a suburban backyard.
7. **Raid on Bungeling Bay** — score 423/1000
   Wright's 1984 debut, a helicopter shoot-'em-up whose map editor sparked the idea for SimCity.
8. **Spore** — score 310/1000
   Wright's 2008 evolution game that takes a species from single cell to galactic civilization.
9. **SimCity 2000** — score 310/1000
   The 1993 sequel Wright co-designed with Fred Haslam, adding isometric views, underground layers and arcologies.
10. **The Sims Online** — score 0/1000
   The 2002 massively multiplayer take on The Sims, letting players build homes and businesses in shared cities.

Tags: games, strategy, retro, simulation, will wright