A pre-release version of EA’s The Sims 3 has been illegally downloaded over 180,000 times in four days, according to reports.

The download estimate was provided by research firm BigChampagne, which specialises in monitoring file sharing, according to Bloomberg.

The numbers, if accurate, are outpacing those of Spore, which saw 500,000 copies downloaded in its first ten days before being named the most pirated game of 2008 at an estimated 1.7 million downloads.