The most popular trading games

If buying and selling goods is your thing, give these games a try. Every one of them involve trading in some form: buying and selling goods and moving them by sea (Ports of Call), stock exchange (Acquire, Black Monday), smuggling items in deep space (Elite, Frontier).

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Dope Wars

Windows XP/98/951998 Beermat Software

Dope Wars is a text-based simulation game that originated as a DOS program in the early 1980s, but gained popularity in its Windows version released in 1998. The game puts players in the role of a drug dealer navigating the underg...

Entrepreneur

Windows XP/98/951997 Stardock Entertainment

Capitalism 2

Windows XP/98/95Mac OS2001protected Ensemble Studios

If spreadsheets are your love language, Capitalism 2 is pure romance. This brutally detailed simulation lets you create your own corporate empire from scratch—manufacturing, retail, real estate, stock markets... even farming...

Uncharted Waters 2: New Horizons

DOS1995 KOEI

Uncharted Waters 2: New Horizons is an abandoned simulation game, sequel of Uncharted Waters, developed and released by KOEI in 1995. The Uncharted Waters series is set in the Age of Discovery and gives the player the freedom to s...

Elite

DOS1987freeware Firebird

Railroad Tycoon

DOSMac OS1990freeware MicroProse Software

Uncharted Waters

DOS1990 KOEI

Frontier: Elite 2

DOS1993 Frontier Developments

Frontier: Elite II is a classic space simulation and trading game released in 1993, developed by David Braben and his company Frontier Developments. Frontier is the sequel to the pioneering 1984 game Elite and is often considered ...

Ocean Trader

DOS1995 Software 2000

Business Simulator

DOS1987 Reality Development

Do you find spreadsheets thrilling? Does the idea of profit margins make your heart race? Then Business Simulator is your kind of party. It’s all about running a faceless company in the most unglamorous way possible—bu...

Elite Plus

DOS1991 Realtime Games

Elite Plus is an enhanced version of the classic space trading and combat simulator Elite, released by MicroPlay in 1991 for MS-DOS. It was designed as an update to the original 1984 game, improving graphics, performance, and over...

Baseball Mogul

Windows XP/98/951997 Infinite Monkey Systems

Baseball Mogul (1997) was the original release that kicked off the whole franchise. Developed by Clay Dreslough and published by Infinite Monkey Systems, this was a pioneer in the world of sports management sims. It was released f...

Oil Imperium

DOS1989 reLINE Software

High Seas Trader

DOS1995 Impressions Games

Pirates! Gold

DOSWindows 3.xMac OS1993protectedremakedemo MicroProse Software

Pirates! Gold is an open world game designed by Paul Murphy, developed and released by MicroProse Software in 1993 for DOS, Windows 3.x, Mac and also Sega Genesis and Amiga CD32. Pirates! Gold is a remake of the game Pirates,...

Railroad Tycoon Deluxe

DOS1993 MicroProse Software

Frontier: First Encounters

DOS1995 Frontier Developments

Sid Meier's Pirates!

DOS1987protected MicroProse Software

Zeppelin: Giants of the Sky

DOS1995 Ikarion Software

Ever dreamed of running a transatlantic zeppelin empire during the golden age of flight? Zeppelin: Giants of the Sky lets you do just that — and it’s every bit as niche and charming as it sounds. You build, manage, and...

Space Rogue

DOS1989 Origin Systems

Space Rogue is what happens when Elite and Ultima decide to have a baby… in space. You’re dumped into a universe of hostile aliens, smugglers, and zero-g dogfights, and it’s your job to survive, explore, and may...

Ascii Sector

Windows 10/11LinuxDOS2007freeware

Ascii Sector is what happens when someone takes Privateer, removes the graphics, and replaces them with pure ASCII and sheer willpower. It’s open-world space sim meets roguelike: you trade, fight, explore, get stabbed in sha...

Wing Commander: Privateer

Windows XP/98/95DOSMac OS1993protected Origin Systems

Machiavelli the Prince

DOS1995protected Holistic Design

Patrician

DOS1992protected ASCARON Entertainment

Patrician 2: Quest for Power

Windows XP/98/952000protected ASCARON Entertainment

Drug wars: a game based on the New York drug market

DOS1984

China Sea Trader

DOS1989

Forget piracy—China Sea Trader makes hauling porcelain and spices across 19th-century Asia feel like a cutthroat business. It’s part economic sim, part geography lesson, and all DOS brown-and-gray. You buy low, sell hi...

1869

DOS1992 Max Design

If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming a 19th-century merchant sailing the high seas with a suspiciously optimistic outlook on international trade, 1869 is your jam. It throws you into the age of clipper ships, where profit marg...