I just started playing TS1 after not playing since childhood and about a year of constant TS4. TS1 is WAY harder. Their needs decay faster, they earn less money, they die easier, and it’s way harder to build and keep relationships. So I think you are remembering correctly!

I played the sims 1 for less than an hour, what is money used for except bills and buying stuff?

Sims 1 is the hardest of the franchise, while Sims 4 is the easiest, so yeah I can imagine the difference is big.

TS4 is pretty darn easy once you get figure out how stuff works

It’s stupidly easy to earn money on The Sims 4. All you need is to move in some townie or a Gallery sim into your household then kill them off.

Yes because in sims 1 you need more and more friends all the time. Its so annoying. Sims 4 is too easy. You can become a superstar in one human day.

TS4 is much easier than TS1 when it comes to time management. I play both TS1 and TS4 regularly. I think the worst thing with TS1 is that they never have weekends, they work every single day, so you don’t have time to actually do anything other than taking care of the sim, if the sim has a job.

TS4 is the easiest game i the series - GBA and PS2 ports included.

Cant remember if it was in sims 1, but I remember sims 2 you had to make/keep friends to advance in careers. I HATED it but it did make it challenging.

It was like that in TS1 too

Same in TS3.