A free stock market simulator where the stocks are French towns
Updated October 27, 2026
Most stock market simulators hand you companies and tickers. Towndom hands you towns: 35,000 of them, each with a price that reacts to transport disruptions, weather, events and more. It is free, it runs on €2,000 of play money, and it is a game: no real money is involved at any point.
Towndom is a game: the currency is 100% fictional and nothing can be won or withdrawn for real. This guide is not investment advice.
What makes Towndom a stock market simulator?
It has the mechanics you would expect. You hold a treasury in play money, you buy shares, you sell them, and your portfolio has a value that rises and falls with the prices of what you hold. Every town has a ticker, a chart and a status that tells you whether it can be traded.
The difference is the underlying asset. Instead of a company, a share is tied to a place. A town with a big festival coming up, a rail strike or a closed road is a different story from one where nothing happens, and the game turns those stories into price moves you can read.
How do prices move in a town-based market?
Each town’s price follows real-life signals such as transport, weather, sport and local events. Tap “Why did it move?” on a town page and the game explains the move with the facts behind it, where they came from and how fresh they are. The guide on why prices move covers that screen step by step.
You trade against the market, never against other players. That keeps the game alive when few people are online: you never wait for a buyer, and the price you see is guaranteed for 10 seconds when you confirm. A small fee applies on each trade.
What do you see in your portfolio?
Your portfolio shows the total value of your treasury plus your positions, your gain for the day and your gain since the start. Price charts let you switch between ranges from one hour to three months, so you can tell a one-day wobble from a longer trend.
One detail makes the numbers honest: money you are simply given does not count as a gain. The daily chest, optional ad rewards, rent from your towers and referral bonuses all go into your treasury, but they are excluded from your percentage gain and from every ranking. Your results reflect your choices, not your login streak.
Is it really free?
Yes. You can play, level up and finish at the top of a league without paying. The game takes no card to start, and it asks for a nickname rather than an email.
There are optional purchases, and the rule behind them is simple: nothing that is sold can give you an edge. You will never find shares, play money, information about upcoming events or a ranking boost in the shop. What is for sale is appearance (piece styles, flags, board themes, avatar frames) or comfort (a pass that removes the ad offers). Everything for sale can also be earned by playing, just more slowly; the no-ads pass is the only paid comfort. More in the guide to Towndom and real money.
What can a simulator like this teach you?
Playing for a few weeks can familiarize you with a handful of ideas. Spreading your play money across several towns instead of one is a different experience from going all in. Watching a price react to news is a different thing from reading about it. A week, a month and an open-ended game each reward different habits.
That is where it stops. Towndom is a game with its own rules and its own simulated prices. It does not tell you how real markets will behave, it makes no promise about anything, and it is not investment advice. Treat what you learn as vocabulary and intuition, not as a strategy for real money.
How is Towndom different from a classic simulator?
A few things set it apart, and they are what make it feel like a game rather than a spreadsheet:
- A board: each town you buy becomes a piece on a map of France, and the piece grows floor by floor.
- Mayors: hold the most shares of a town and you become its mayor, with your nickname on the town page.
- Weekly leagues: 30 players, ranked by percentage gain, with promotion and relegation across six divisions.
- A monthly season and a chill mode: compete when you want to, or collect all 96 départements at your own pace with no ranking.
What does a first session look like?
Install the app, pick a nickname, and you land with €2,000 in play money. Search for a town you know, open its page and read the chart and the status. Then open the “Why did it move?” screen to see what has been pushing the price.
When you are ready, place a first stake. The town becomes a piece on your board and the portfolio starts tracking it. Open the daily chest, try a mission, and come back later in the day or the next morning to see what changed. Prices follow the news, so there is always something new to look at, and no clock forces you to act.
If a week of competition sounds like too much, switch to chill mode, where nothing resets and nobody ranks you. Both modes use the same towns, the same prices and the same rules, so what you learn in one carries over to the other.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Towndom a real stock market?
- No. It is a simulation game. Prices are fictional and follow the game’s own rules, inspired by real-life signals about each town. Nothing in the game is a financial product.
- Do I need a card or a deposit to start?
- No. You start with €2,000 in play money and no card is required. There is no deposit and no withdrawal in Towndom.
- Can the simulator make me a better investor?
- It can familiarize you with some notions, such as spreading your holdings, thinking about time horizon and seeing prices react to news. That is all. It is a game, not training and not investment advice.
- Which devices does it run on?
- iPhone with iOS 18 or later. It is iPhone only for now, and the app is in French.