IGN.com has posted a list of the 100 most wanted games at 3 January 2003. The checked the wishlists of released and unreleased games from the IGN readers, and made lists for each platform. The wishlists were made by readers of IGN using the free wishlist functionality at users.ign.com. Titles from Maxis occur in the lists quite a few times:

PC:
4: SimCity 4
20: The Sims Online
55: The Sims Unleashed
57: The Sims Deluxe
81: The Sims: Vacation
91: The Sims: Hot Date
(Full list)

PlayStation 2:
47: The Sims
(Full list)