Redwood City (CA) - Electronic Arts today announced that its mega hit series The Sims has reached sales of over 100 million copies worldwide. That’s nearly one third of the entire United States population.

The Sims long ago reached the designation of being the top-selling PC game ever and gave rockstar status to series creator Will Wright. Despite some lackluster expansions, namely home console iterations and The Sims Online, it continues to be a powerful game franchise.

To give more perspective, Super Mario Bros, the best-selling Mario game of all time, only sold around 41 million copies. That includes all copies that came packed in with the original NES system and the re-releases on the SNES and GBA.

Of course, today’s sales accomplishment includes all "products from The Sims franchise," and not just a single title, according to EA’s statement.

"At this milestone, we want to thank players of The Sims everywhere for making The Sims such a worldwide phenomenon," said Sims studio head Rod Humble.

The Sims gained attention for its wide-reaching appeal, bringing many non-typical gamers to PC gaming for the first time. A critically acclaimed PC series, The Sims and The Sims 2 have both received average ratings of around 90% on Gamerankings.com out of hundreds of reviews. Console versions, however, have been rated significantly lower.

In commemoration of this milestone, EA has created an exclusive outfit for in-game characters in Sims 2. Users can download the new outfit at TheSims2.com.