Review Insights · App Store
SimCity BuildIt
Electronic Arts · 80,698 ratings · ★ 4.1
4.1
★★★★★
80,698 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 60 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"game"
47 negative reviews mention this · 78% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Was better long ago. Overcomplicated and continues to lower in overall quality with each upgrade. Was a much better game in earlier years of development. Somewhere along the way, just building cool cities was lost for a money grab" - RS2797a
2
"money"
19 negative reviews mention this · 32% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Was better long ago. Overcomplicated and continues to lower in overall quality with each upgrade. Was a much better game in earlier years of development. Somewhere along the way, just building cool cities was lost for a money grab" - RS2797a
3
"update"
17 negative reviews mention this · 28% of all complaints
★★★★★ "FIX THE GAME!!!. Played the game for around 10 years now. Since EA was bought out, the hedge fund running the game has made catastrophically bad updates that clearly display their only desire is to make you spend your money on the game. Game is almost unpla…" - yes272636
4
"years"
16 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Was better long ago. Overcomplicated and continues to lower in overall quality with each upgrade. Was a much better game in earlier years of development. Somewhere along the way, just building cool cities was lost for a money grab" - RS2797a
5
"cities"
11 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Was better long ago. Overcomplicated and continues to lower in overall quality with each upgrade. Was a much better game in earlier years of development. Somewhere along the way, just building cool cities was lost for a money grab" - RS2797a
6
"services"
11 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Need to fix services. The service upgrades are fine and can be dealt with (with some annoyance) but the distribution of the services that may over lap need to be fixed. I shouldn’t have to reorganize for a larger service when the area theoretically has enough co…" - Dog kind of guy
7
"playing"
11 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Always room for improvement. The Latest update Is Just… awful.. Made the game “harder” - I don’t need a super challenge.. I want the game to pass time when I’m bored! ? Now I need to destroy half my city and redesign to accommodate city that isn’t MAXIS Tower.. GREE…" - TheScott79
8
"updates"
9 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "FIX THE GAME!!!. Played the game for around 10 years now. Since EA was bought out, the hedge fund running the game has made catastrophically bad updates that clearly display their only desire is to make you spend your money on the game. Game is almost unpla…" - yes272636
9
"spend"
9 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "FIX THE GAME!!!. Played the game for around 10 years now. Since EA was bought out, the hedge fund running the game has made catastrophically bad updates that clearly display their only desire is to make you spend your money on the game. Game is almost unpla…" - yes272636
10
"since"
8 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "FIX THE GAME!!!. Played the game for around 10 years now. Since EA was bought out, the hedge fund running the game has made catastrophically bad updates that clearly display their only desire is to make you spend your money on the game. Game is almost unpla…" - yes272636
11
"city"
8 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Disgusted. I’ve played this game for 13 years, it was creative and fun. Now the new owners have turned the game into drudgery and a waste of money. You build a city follow the rules. Now they have changed the rules and they have destroyed the abili…" - dropping mstar
12
"changes"
8 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Used to be fun. Played 8 years and used to really enjoy it. All of the updates and changes made it more tedious and boring games with games with games. Now it’s a very clunky game with way too many menial tasks and complicated mechanics." - sweene_23
📋 All 60 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Ea is blowing it
Ruined game
FIX THE GAME!!!
Played the game for around 10 years now. Since EA was bought out, the hedge fund running the game has made catastrophically bad updates that clearly display their only desire is to make you spend your money on the game. Game is almost unplayable now. FIX THE LAGGGGGGgggggg!!!!
New version
Really dislike this new version had tp completely redo my town you lost a lot of players trying to force people to spend money
Need to fix services
The service upgrades are fine and can be dealt with (with some annoyance) but the distribution of the services that may over lap need to be fixed. I shouldn’t have to reorganize for a larger service when the area theoretically has enough coverage between two smaller ones but aren’t distributed properly.
Disgusted
I’ve played this game for 13 years, it was creative and fun. Now the new owners have turned the game into drudgery and a waste of money. You build a city follow the rules. Now they have changed the rules and they have destroyed the ability to create according to the game’s rules. Every day you fix what they destroy. When you come back, there is new destruction. It’s not fun. If you are looking for a creative pastime, look elsewhere.
Used to be fun
Played 8 years and used to really enjoy it. All of the updates and changes made it more tedious and boring games with games with games. Now it’s a very clunky game with way too many menial tasks and complicated mechanics.
Always room for improvement
The Latest update Is Just… awful.. Made the game “harder” - I don’t need a super challenge.. I want the game to pass time when I’m bored! ? Now I need to destroy half my city and redesign to accommodate city that isn’t MAXIS Tower..
GREEDY GREEDY GREEDY
Game could use More - The inventory list needs organization! Can’t find anything.. now you have special effects buildings, theme buildings, seasonal and holiday buildings.. I don’t remember all of them.. In every category… you did NOTHING with SPACE after introduction! - and in the 2nd ever space season.. No Moon rocks/land! Where’s that? - You’ve Never done a Moon design contest.. where is your creative concept!
you need to be able to open up more land, BEACH, and MOUNTAINS. I’ve been playing game for 4 years and I have maxed out all beach, mountain & Land.. and I STILL can’t open the last Suburb region city. - But that said the Game needs to create 2-3 more region cities, and make it easier to open regions, More Factories!!
MAKE 2 new suburbs!
NEED MORE LAND IN EVERY SUBURB AND CENTRAL CITY AND MAKE SUBURBS EASIER TO OPEN!!!
the Design concept Needs A Lot of work- Bridges to Nowhere! - Joe Hart People even submitting these designs?! people submitting designs that don’t have functional streets, or no streets at all connected to a bridges. or have a goal in the design process to Cover the entire map.. every square.. water, flowers, trees, mountains, houses, parks, transportation, education… cover the map! - this Game could be So much more!
GREEDY GREEDY GREEDY
Game could use More - The inventory list needs organization! Can’t find anything.. now you have special effects buildings, theme buildings, seasonal and holiday buildings.. I don’t remember all of them.. In every category… you did NOTHING with SPACE after introduction! - and in the 2nd ever space season.. No Moon rocks/land! Where’s that? - You’ve Never done a Moon design contest.. where is your creative concept!
you need to be able to open up more land, BEACH, and MOUNTAINS. I’ve been playing game for 4 years and I have maxed out all beach, mountain & Land.. and I STILL can’t open the last Suburb region city. - But that said the Game needs to create 2-3 more region cities, and make it easier to open regions, More Factories!!
MAKE 2 new suburbs!
NEED MORE LAND IN EVERY SUBURB AND CENTRAL CITY AND MAKE SUBURBS EASIER TO OPEN!!!
the Design concept Needs A Lot of work- Bridges to Nowhere! - Joe Hart People even submitting these designs?! people submitting designs that don’t have functional streets, or no streets at all connected to a bridges. or have a goal in the design process to Cover the entire map.. every square.. water, flowers, trees, mountains, houses, parks, transportation, education… cover the map! - this Game could be So much more!
Fun Game Until Services 2.0
I played this game for years, and then EA rolled out a Services 2.0 update that absolutely wrecked my city. I eventually quit logging in to play because it became so unpleasant to see how my city was ruined after years of development. Play at your own risk because some of their updates are atrocious.
So MANY glitches
within a 20 min time span i get kicked out of the game 11 times. I have been playing for years but am about to quit from frustration. im about to level my 3 cities and start again. the new system of updating services is the WORSE!!!!
Went from great to a money grab
Way too many ads, the game will suck you dry. Everything costs real money to do. For 10 years the game was awesome, it’s just a money grab now.
Every update
Makes the game worse and moves toward never ending interruptions for micro-purchases. All while playability decreases. The game is always crashing. I wish I could give zero stars.
Constant pop up ads
The goal was to make simpletons to grow the city. Now it’s just to watch video ads. Pathetic
Game ruined by latest update
I’ve been playing this game every day for over a decade. It’s been a fun and enjoyable game building various cities. But…don’t waste your money. I’ve quit spending money on the game since their latest update. I will wind down my game playing and will leave the game. I’ve been on a great team but members are leaving after the update. Too bad. I’m done with this game
Fish
The game freezes all the time. You can not get things done it’s constantly loading. It’s this game all my other games work fine.
New up
The new update has caused many people to drop the game.
Full of cheaters and scams
The game is really terrible. Global market is absolutely worthless, nothing but the same cities and same products, never any other options. So many different things to collect can’t keep track. Half the time you don’t get credit for completing tasks. Then when you actually want to spend money it errors out and you can’t buy the items you want to. So you can’t even buy items, ridiculous. Same rewards for attacking cities, no variety in rewards. However no matter what players say or who you say it to at support, it’s ALWAYS the players fault never the games, according to support. They claim the game never makes any mistakes. LAUGHABLE!!
It’s so sad, I have played this game since it came out and it has increasingly just gotten worse. And now it’s to the point where I’m considering deleting the game, it’s not worth the hassle anymore.
It’s so sad, I have played this game since it came out and it has increasingly just gotten worse. And now it’s to the point where I’m considering deleting the game, it’s not worth the hassle anymore.
These new updates are horrible
What used to be a fun game has now turned into an obvious money grab by the creators. Challenges are impossible to complete, unless you spend real money on the game.
Glitches
This game is so full of glitches, it takes 15 minutes to do a 5 minute task like upgrading services. Very frustrating and takes the enjoyment out of playing. The Admin is trying to do TO MUCH!!
Fix the railroads! It’s been over 2 years!
Game is buggy and has manipulative algorithm always trying to get you to pay to play. Even before the acquisition by Saudi Arabia, the game was going downhill.
Messed Up
The frequent forced changes; higher cost of items, increases by 5 instead of 1 Simcash to purchase war card (lots of us only use Simcash there), sneaking in charges for war weapons in the middle of the bunch...
EA reaches a new mercenary low with each greedy, manipulative update. Pay attention to the many other game options being suggested by your clubmates on Discord and in game chats. Most of the best games now allow you to play online with one or more friends.
EA reaches a new mercenary low with each greedy, manipulative update. Pay attention to the many other game options being suggested by your clubmates on Discord and in game chats. Most of the best games now allow you to play online with one or more friends.
What happened?!?!
I worked hard for a large city with a 100% rating and now it’s 12% because all of the sudden lost all first responder and city infrastructure? Why do I have to spend more money to regain something I already had????
Not Fun
This app stalls and crashes often. It also drains your battery super fast., 0/10 def don’t recommend
Too much to click
Too many things to click takes the fun out of it
Smells
The game was good until suddenly they decided that I hadn’t spent enough money or time on this game and so they changed everything so now I have to rebuild everything it is just absolutely ridiculous and I only do this because I think that the game stinks
Progressively worse
This game used to be a lot of fun. Now it’s geared towards massive spends. Rewards used to be attainable with little or no actual spending. I keep teetering on just walking away.
Would give a lower rating if I could.
Would give a lower rating if I could.
Awful updates
Insane lag, for changes to the game that everyone hates
Worst update ever
I’ve been playing for years. Often spending $5 a month for premium upgrades, which I’ve been ok with because what I’ve been getting in return has been substantial. HOWEVER… This update is officially the worst, and I hope it backfires and you rethink it SC BuildIt. It might actually be the catalyst I need to finally quit playing the game. It’s NOT an improvement. It’s HORRIBLE. Nothing about having to redo all of our services is fun. PLEASE GO BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS BEFORE OR GIVE US MILLIONS MORE SIMOLEONS SO WE CAN UPDATE EVERYTHING. We can’t even earn money to pay for everything because everyone has moved out. It’s exhausting and expensive to have to go through every single thing. At this point SimCity is just being greedy and taking the fun out of the game. If SC BuildIt is demanding a minimum purchase from us just to get by, it’s not ok.
They are being greedy. Every update is too complicated and requires us to put in more effort and money.
This update makes it much harder to play. My interest has officially plummeted. :( STOP COMPLICATING THINGS AND BRING THE OLD GAME BACK. Heck, open up new areas for us to build on! That would give us the excitement we used to have. Let us expand our cities more and leave the rest alone!
They are being greedy. Every update is too complicated and requires us to put in more effort and money.
This update makes it much harder to play. My interest has officially plummeted. :( STOP COMPLICATING THINGS AND BRING THE OLD GAME BACK. Heck, open up new areas for us to build on! That would give us the excitement we used to have. Let us expand our cities more and leave the rest alone!
Not fun anymore
They let hackers take over the war aspect of the game!! And refuse to block them from cheating!!
Service 2.0 ruined it
New updates with services ruined 10 years of work. Not spending real money to do a total rebuild. After all these years these developers bent remove hackers from this game ruining wars.
Last Update Ruined It
Now it is a constant grind earning points for rewards, popsicles are really a stupid way to earn. They should undo and bring back the last version. This is just is not fun.
Awful
awful after all these changes
Used to be an enjoyable game...N o w t o o s l o w
Game is bloated and takes a long while to go between screens. Hangs frequently, requiring a device restart. If EA developers were half as competent as all the hackers in the game, they could spend some time making the game decent again. Developers have also abandoned basic economics, presumably assuming anyone still playing this game is too stupid to notice. So sad what it devolved to.
Game experience
Considering quitting with all the unsupported changes. It’s a shame that this is no longer enjoyable. :/
2.0 update
Total screw up of the entire game! There are so many complaints after the update that I can’t even write them all down in this review… You have cut our cities capacity and more than half, it has stopped the ability to build our other cities, you made the game, totally unplayable and in pleasurable. Really interesting with all our cities in a mess. You’re still asked for money in all category to update. Wow you continue to make money on this game. The players have suffered and I’m quite sure I’m not the only one that complain. I personally spend over $1500.00 a year on this game. Of which I played since 2016… whoever made decision to do these updates should go back to the old ways where everyone was happy playing. Have you folks have not learned from the Bud Light fiasco a few years ago when they made changes and lost all their value, volume, customers, and a full from being number one in the world. I know my complaint will probably follow on deaf ears at the corporate level, but hopefully someone will understand our mayors pain and perhaps I’ll get you’ll get back to me.
You keep changing the rules
Train levels are too hard plus utility shortages are unpredictable. You got too many things going on.
Sim game
The game is mundane and the train system is pricy and unfair not going to put much effort into it all in all not going to play it much anymore
The data is making the game aggravating you people are ate up
The data is making the game aggravating you people are ate up
Sad but true
Since the last forced upgrade the game sucks. All of the money I spent on building up my cities was wasted because of the greedy developers of this game.
Game lagging
I’ve enjoyed playing this game, especially with the league I’m in, but the game is starting to lag. Because of this, I’ve purchased items in global I didn’t need, it takes longer to collect items that are ready, and I’ve been shielded during wars because it takes longer for my dud to launch. FIX THE LAG PLEASE!!!
Services
Unfortunately, Service upgrades are killing the joy of playing this game. Bad idea, EA. The game has become cumbersome and slow. Too many things going on, especially with the new Services feature. You’re going to lose a lot of players unless you figure a way out of this mess.
Lost my main account
My account is still in my club, but I can’t pull it up on my android! Nobody has helped me with this!
Less than perfect
It’s an okay way to kill time, but the game is buggy, changes a bit too often, and customer support is more like customer face smacking. It’s terrible.
Game
Too much work and time lately with too many items. Still way too many hackers who always annoy you. Get rid of the cheaters! Too many forms of money and why switch types of money too much work games should be fun
New Format
Terrible
Don’t Buy Anything - 2.0 Scam
Expect numerous pop-ups to buy things, but don’t expect to keep anything you paid for, since they will change the game on you.
I have enjoyed playing this game for years and spent real money to buy items. That was a mistake. In an instant they changed parts of the game and now my cities are going dark unless I spend a lot of money to update.
Terrible. If you buy something, do not expect to keep it. If you set the expectation that you’ll lose items at any time, you won’t be disappointed when they change the game and steal it back from you.
I have enjoyed playing this game for years and spent real money to buy items. That was a mistake. In an instant they changed parts of the game and now my cities are going dark unless I spend a lot of money to update.
Terrible. If you buy something, do not expect to keep it. If you set the expectation that you’ll lose items at any time, you won’t be disappointed when they change the game and steal it back from you.
I am shocked.
After last update with services I managed to fix my cities, but with new update they managed to make it worse. Please wire your game designer.
Irrational Changes
I have enjoyed the game for a long time, but they have made changes that are irrational and feel like HUGE efforts to grab money. Very disappointing. Don’t waste your time with this app unless you have lots of real cash to burn now.
Services 2.0 May 2026 update
Can you fix the consistent crashes of the game. It does it both on Apple’s Axx older hardware and on the newer Mx Hardware. Crashes are really annoying.
Insanely enough, it crashes more on the newer Apple M cpus. Fewer crashes on the older iPads, but they still have too many also.
Lay off adding in new features until the existing bugs and bloat are addressed.
Insanely enough, it crashes more on the newer Apple M cpus. Fewer crashes on the older iPads, but they still have too many also.
Lay off adding in new features until the existing bugs and bloat are addressed.
Game Ruined by private equity
Private Equity ruined this game, 10 years of building this to over 6,000,000 in population and now they make it where more resources are needed to keep all the people happy. They are hoping for me to spend money as well as everyone else spend money…. Not going to do it! This game is dead. Stay away from greedy private equity BS. If you are thinking about getting started don’t waste your time. Knowing what I know to start from the beginning with so much stuff to get completed I would never suggest this…. AND they keep adding so much new stuff that doesn’t allow you to meet other needed goals to play….
Was better long ago
Overcomplicated and continues to lower in overall quality with each upgrade. Was a much better game in earlier years of development. Somewhere along the way, just building cool cities was lost for a money grab
Latest update uses too much memory
I have a newer phone but am constantly having to restart or force quit the game because it freezes up so often
+ 10 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
77%
Positive (4-5★)
7%
Neutral (3★)
16%
Negative (1-2★)