I think a good number of 10+ million Sim families created were done when TS4 released the 1st Demo of the game – CAS was all everyone had so there was literally nothing else which could be made. Still, no matter when the Sims were created EA chose to use this number as a starting point in their mini-facts about TS4 to date (the blue banner at the top of the section).

10+ million Sim families implies that a lot of Simmers are playing this game. This is what EA banks on when the casual reader digests the quick information presented in this way. While it may be a complete fact that 10+million Sim families were created – that’s all it is – just a fact about creation. But, when you pair the opening information with the following 22% lost family members and only 32% (just 10% more) were born it shows not as many players are playing with those 10+ million Sims. Or, if many Simmers are playing they are not playing very long or in ways which keep the world populated in the death/birth cycle. I say these are terrible odd because while the first fact talks about creation, the 2nd & 3rd facts (22% & 32%) makes reference to actual game play. Hope this helps.