The Sims 4 - the life management simulation title played predominantly by sociopaths - isn't showing any sign of decline five years after its initial release.

During its call with investors, publisher EA has said that the title's active userbase rose 35 per cent year-on-year in the 2019 fiscal year - its strongest yet - driven by new content. In addition, the firm predicts that The Sims 4 will see further growth in the 2020 financial year.

"As we wrap up FY 2019, I also want to highlight the continued success of The Sims 4, which has grown every year since we launched," CEO Andrew Wilson said during his prepared remarks, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha.

"We launched three new content packs and multiple game updates for our Sims 4 community throughout the year, all of which contributed to a 35 per cent year-over-year increase in active players and our strongest year of engagement yet for this ongoing live service. The passion of our Sims community is incredible, and we look forward to bringing them many more great experiences in the year ahead."

CFO Blake Jorgensen added later: "We are also forecasting further growth of our Sims 4 business, off of fiscal 2019, which was its strongest year ever, including the launch year."

During Q3 2019 - the three months ending December 31st, 2018 - The Sims 4 crossed the $1bn lifetime revenue mark. As of October 2018, expansion packs for the title had been downloaded over 30m times.

Speaking to PCGamesInsider.biz at Gamescom 2017, the title's lead producer Grant Rodiek told us that The Sims 4 boasted 200m monthly active users. EA repeatedly asked us to remove this figure as it is 'inaccurate', on the basis that it doesn't share this information publicly. As such, we have declined to remove it.