The genie lamp in The Sims 2 comes from the FreeTime expansion, and it is never bought: the Matchmaker drops the “Dusty Old Lamp” off at your lot on her own when a household has a Sim with a high Lifetime Aspiration meter or strong hobby enthusiasm. If you play The Sims 2 Legacy Collection, FreeTime is already installed, so every household is eligible. This guide covers what triggers the delivery, the one pre-made family that starts with a lamp, how the three wishes work, and what each wish does when the genie gets it right or wrong.
Which version of The Sims 2 you need
The lamp is a FreeTime feature. The Sims 2 Legacy Collection, released on Steam and the EA App in January 2025, bundles the base game with every expansion pack, FreeTime included, so there is nothing extra to buy or enable. The older Ultimate Collection from 2014 also included FreeTime, so the lamp behaves the same there. The only pack the Legacy Collection dropped, per the release notes, is a stuff pack removed for licensing reasons, and stuff packs have no effect on the genie.
The Legacy Collection’s patches through April 2025 (verified against the official patch notes on Steam) fixed crashes, resolution scaling and a handful of gameplay bugs, none of which touched the genie or the Matchmaker, so long-standing player documentation of the lamp still describes the current build.
What makes the Matchmaker deliver the lamp
The Matchmaker is the elderly NPC you can normally call for a blind date or a potion, and in FreeTime she has a second job: she sneaks onto lots and leaves the Dusty Old Lamp. Long-running player documentation on The Sims Wiki describes the trigger as a small daily roll for each Sim in the household whose Lifetime Aspiration level is high (level 7 or above is the figure usually quoted, with roughly a 2 percent chance per Sim per day), and reports that high hobby enthusiasm can also qualify a household even without that aspiration level. We cannot confirm the exact percentages against anything from Maxis, so treat them as community numbers, but the practical advice is solid:
- Raise Lifetime Aspiration by fulfilling wants steadily and hitting the milestones the FreeTime meter tracks, such as reaching the top of a career or completing a lifetime want.
- Pick one hobby per Sim and push enthusiasm hard: the hobby lots and the hobby-linked objects fill it fastest.
- Keep the same household loaded for a stretch of days. The roll happens per day while you are playing that lot.
You will know it worked when a notification tells you the Matchmaker has left something behind, and a Sim in the house usually gets a memory of finding the lamp. Player reports say the lamp can also arrive for a dormmate, roommate or even a visitor rather than the Sim who “earned” it, so check the lot after the message.
The household that already has one
If you want a genie right now, load Desiderata Valley, the neighborhood FreeTime added. The Aspir household there begins the game with a Dusty Old Lamp already in the house, which makes it the fastest way to see the wishes without grinding aspiration. It is also a good household to practise the wish choices in before you risk them on a legacy family.
Before the lamp is rubbed you can click it and choose “Sell Lamp” for a flat §1,000, which is the only way to sell it (it cannot be sold from Buy Mode). Once the genie has been summoned even once, the sell option is gone for good, though the lamp can still be placed in an inventory or given as a gift.
Making the three wishes
Click the lamp and rub it to summon the genie. He grants three wishes per lamp, not per Sim: any child or older Sim in the household can make a wish, including Sims who did not rub the lamp, and there is no time limit, so the wishes can sit unused across several days. When the third wish is spent the genie leaves and the lamp vanishes. The wishes on offer are:
- Give Me Wealth: money bags fall from the sky over the following hours; player documentation puts the total at §22,000. Click each bag and choose “Get Money!” to collect. The catch is a higher burglar chance for a few days, which applies even if the wish fails.
- Give Me Beauty: the Sim gets maxed attraction for four days, so almost everyone has strong chemistry with them. Success or failure, NPCs ring the doorbell constantly while it lasts, and do not move the Sim out until the effect ends or it becomes permanent.
- Give Me A Long Life: adds days to the Sim’s life on success, and shaves a few hours off on failure. Not offered to young adults.
- Give Me Peace of Mind: permanent Platinum aspiration on success. On failure, objects around the house break constantly. This wish is hidden if the Sim already has permanent Platinum.
- Give Me Power To Cheat Death: lets the Sim plead for their own life with the Grim Reaper. There is no visible sign of whether it worked until Death actually shows up.
- Resurrect: brings back a dead Sim or pet the wisher knew. On failure they return as a zombie. Either way, something comes back.
Whether a wish succeeds depends on the wisher’s aspiration level, so make wishes on a Sim whose aspiration bar is Gold or Platinum. Sims with a lamp in the house may roll a want to make a wish, which is an easy aspiration boost on its own.
Getting another lamp
The 2025 version of this guide said one lamp per household. That is not how player documentation describes it: a household becomes eligible again 14 Sim days after its last delivery, and a Sim who moves out of a household that had a lamp can receive one in the new home. So a long-running family can see several genies over the generations.
Save before wishing. The genie’s failures (a zombie relative, a burglar, a house of broken appliances) are reversible only by reloading, and the same goes for a resurrected Sim who comes back not quite right. Our guide on how to save your game in The Sims 2 covers the quick save shortcut. If you would rather skip the wait and the risk, our Sims 2 cheats guide explains the testing cheats that let you spawn objects directly, and the Sims guides hub has the rest of the cluster, including how to get abducted by aliens if a genie is not enough weirdness for one household.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need an expansion for the genie lamp? Yes, FreeTime. It is included in The Sims 2 Legacy Collection and in the older Ultimate Collection, so both current ways of owning the game have it.
Can I buy the genie lamp in Buy Mode? No. It is only delivered by the Matchmaker, or found already in the Aspir house in Desiderata Valley. Testing cheats can spawn it, which is the only shortcut.
How many wishes does the genie grant? Three per lamp, shared by the whole household. Any child or older Sim can make one, and there is no deadline.
Can a wish go wrong? Yes. Every wish has a failure outcome, from a zombie resurrection to constant breakdowns, and the odds depend on the wisher’s aspiration level. Wish on a Gold or Platinum Sim and save first.
Can a household get a second lamp? Player documentation says yes, once 14 Sim days have passed since the last delivery, and a Sim who moves out can be delivered one in their new home.