SimCity: BuildIt

SimCity: BuildIt is a city-building mobile game developed by TrackTwenty and published by Electronic Arts. It was launched in late 2014. The game is part of the SimCity franchise,^[1] and is available to download from the Google Play Store,^[2] Amazon Appstore,^[3] and the Apple App Store.

SimCity: BuildIt
Developer(s)	TrackTwenty
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Series	SimCity
Platform(s)	Android iOS Kindle Fire
Release	December 16, 2014
Genre(s)	City-building
Mode(s)	Single-player

This game allows players to solve real-life situations like fire, sewage, pollution, and traffic and helps deal with public problems. Players can connect and compete with other players for more connected gameplay.^[4]

Gameplay

The game is freemium (free-to-play with pop-up advertisements and in-game purchases). It utilizes music and graphics similar to the 2013 SimCity game, although it is slightly downscaled to fit in with iOS and Android devices' graphic capabilities. The game's currencies include simoleons (standard in-game currency) and SimCash (premium currency).

Players play as the mayor of their city and make choices to keep their sims happy. When they do this, players can earn taxes from the City Hall. The more people in the city, the happier the people are, and the more taxes are earned.

Players can trade, friend, chat, and join clubs with other players for connected online gameplay.

There is no zoning feature in SimCity: BuildIt. Instead, buildings are moved manually. Commercial and industrial buildings produce items, and residential zones require them to upgrade to a higher density. Factories can also be upgraded, although this requires demolishing the original building when it is not producing anything and then replacing it with a new one.

The build tool can only be used to build two-lane roads. Players cannot manually build higher-capacity roads; they must upgrade them instead.

Development

The game started development after the release of SimCity (2013) in an effort to develop a game quicker than prior installments and at a much higher profit margin. BuildIt uses many assets from SimCity (2013).^[5]

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	58/100[6]

Review scores

Publication	Score
IGN	3.5/5[7]
X-Play	3/5[citation needed]
Pocket Gamer	2.5/5[8]
TouchArcade	[9]
PC Magazine	4/5[10]

Reception

As of October 2021^[update], the application has been downloaded over 100 million times on the Google Play Store.^[11] It ranks number four all-time in simulation game downloads operating on Android.^{[citation needed]}

In 2018, according to EA Mobile, SimCity: BuildIt became the most-played SimCity game ever. It stayed in the top 10 in U.S. sim and strategy games on iOS platforms, in the top 100 for U.S. games overall, and in the top 150 games globally.^[12]