How to get The Sims 4
Legit Way
You have four ways: EA Store, Steam, Epic Games and physical CD. The base The Sims 4 game is free on the first three platforms. If you never played The Sims before, give the base game a try for free and without gigabytes of expacs.
Windows
A physical CD is hard to find and one-use only nowadays, so give preference to online stores.
Which store? EA Games is new and quite buggy, so I recommend Steam or Epic. There it boils down to personal preference. Steam has better customer service and is lighter on your PC, Epic has more promotions.
Mac
Are you on Mac? EA Games, Steam and Epic are Windows-only. EA never killed Origin for Mac, though, so it's still there!
Linux
Are you on Linux? Steam runs natively, Epic doesn't, but the open source Hero Launcher does a pretty good job at it (but it's a third-party tool and may get you banned). The Sims doesn't run natively, only Steam does. Read the ProtonDB page for Steam. Some people have been reporting errors since Origin was closed and EA Store was implemented for good.
- Ubuntu/Pop! users: Get Wine from the official site, NOT from the OS store, because your OS store is like two years behind on releases. Get the staging build. Get winetricks. I've had a lot of success with dxvk, but specially dxvk_nvapi (as I have a Nvidia video card).
Pirated Game
You have three main ways: Torrent, Fitgirl and Anadius.
Remember: Pirating may get you in legal trouble, specially in the first world (USA + Canada + Europe + East Asia)! I won't teach anyone how to pirate safely here, just where to get the game.
Torrents (don't)
Torrents are the old way most people are familiar with, but they're the most dangerous in both a "you'll get a virus" way and the "you'll get the police" way. Prefer Fitgirl or Anadius.
Fitgirl (easy)
Fitgirl's repack is the easiest way. Remember to get it from her official site: fitgirl-repacks.site/ Every other site is a scam. You'll get an .exe. Just click "continue" and wait for the wizard to run. The downside of Fitgirl is that it is non customizable, her launcher will install EVERYTHING, and she is also usually a bit behind Anadius.
Anadius (recommended)
Anadius is the recommended way. His website is https://anadius2.tumblr.com Click The Sims 4 > Instructions in the drop-down menu and follow the instructions. Anadius' way also supports you having an original base game but pirated DLCs.
Updating the game
Updating the game: Ok, you got it. Regardless of how you installed the base game, update it by either downloading torrent files (more dangerous) using the Sims Updater from Anadius (easy and safer). If you got the original base game you can update it directly from EA Games/Steam/Epic.
Online Gallery Access
You can use the gallery on a pirated game with Anadius' method. Just update the game by his Updater, click "launch online" and follow the steps his launcher will give you.
Pirated on Mac/Linux
Are you on Mac/Linux? Good news, you won't run with any store-related trouble. Download the pirated game (any of the above methods) inside a wineprefix and use Wine to run it (follow the last paragraph on the "legit way" part).