2003, "Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life", Cube (UK), July 2003, page 55:
You may not get to design your own wallpaper and talk to strange creatures, but as far as life-sims go, this is the best you'll get for some time.
2003, "The Usual Suspects", Cube (UK), November 2003, page 35:
Although there are other life sims such as Theme Park, Sim City and so on, they've all had a gameplay objective, a purpose for playing.
2005, Sean Carton, 2005 Gamer's Almanac, page 282:
In fact, as far as full-fledged life sims go, The Sims has pretty much been it for most gamers.
2019, Jack Yarwood, "Leaving Albion: The epic making of Fable", Wireframe, 21 November 2019, page 25:
Kynseed: The most Fable-y of the games on this list, Kynseed is a life sim currently in early access, from ex-Fable devs PixelCount Studios.
2022, "Interactive / Bit Orchard: Animal Valley", Wireframe, 7 July 2022, page 81:
With this in mind, 2Boone then set about designing a game based on his wife's interests — namely, life sims like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, and her enduring affection for the Game Boy.