Best Games About Making Money

The goal of making money is both immediately clear and easy for players to understand, making it one of the most effective objectives for video games, especially for games that don’t follow a set, linear narrative.

These games are often tycoon games or business simulations, and while there are some great games to be found in these genres (and some are included here), there are plenty of great games from all genres that use money as their theme and/or main objective.

Updated February 26, 2024, by Harry Ted Sprinks: There is an abundance of games that task players with making money. However, some form of currency is so common in video games nowadays that many games could fall under this umbrella. Games such as the Early Access indie title Ostranauts, and FromSoftware’s hyper-polished action game Armored Core 6, both feature strong themes and gameplay that revolves around earning as much money as possible.

It is important to note that
none of these games involve the actual spending/earning of real-world currency.
All references to “money” refer to in-game earnings and spending.

12 Ostranauts

A Deep And Complex Blue-Collar Space Sim

• Platform(s): PC
• Released: 2020
• Developer(s): Blue Bottle Games

This deep, dark space sim puts players in the shoes of a blue-collar laborer in a grim-dark sci-fi world. Players will spend most of their time salvaging wrecked spaceships, managing their crew, and even customizing their own ship.

Ostranauts is a quiet, meditative experience with a hefty dose of simulation. The game mostly revolves around accruing necessary funds through salvaging and selling valuables. Although Ostranauts features combat, it’s much more focused on its simulated elements.

11 Armored Core 6

Mercenary Mechs And Gray Morality

Although developers FromSoftware may be better known in recent years for their Dark Souls franchise, their Armored Core games have a long and storied history, with a cult following to boot. After years of waiting, fans finally received Armored Core 6, a faithfully constructed and long-awaited entry to the franchise, built with the knowledge and experience FromSoftware gained in the years since the release of the last Armored Core game.

Armored Core 6 puts players in the shoes of a mercenary in a bleak science-fiction world. Players take on missions and destroy a variety of enemies along a morally gray path to victory, all while trying to make as much money as possible to kit out their mech in all manner of ways.

10 Sea Of Thieves

Treasure Hunting On The High Seas

This pirate-themed exploration game has players setting sail on the open seas in search of treasure. Players will sail their own ship either solo or with friends, potentially engaging in combat on the open sea, battling enemies, and following treasure maps, all in the name of gold.

Despite the main gameplay loop of Sea Of Thieves revolving around obtaining as much treasure as possible, the game features plenty of things for players to do, primarily focused on exploring the game’s environments via the intuitive sailing system.

9 Two Point Hospital

A Business Sim About Curing Wacky Ailments

This hospital management game, heavily inspired by Theme Hospital, tasks players with building and managing a hospital to cure patients with strange ailments. The game incentivizes players to build their hospital efficiently in order to optimize the amount of patients they can get through the door, and therefore the amount of cash that they earn.

Two Point Hospital gives players plenty of ways to customize and design their hospital and presents them with several things to manage in order to create an efficient money-making machine. For fans of business sims and management games, it’s hard to go wrong with Two Point Hospital.

8 AdVenture Capitalist

An Iconic Clicker Game About Capitalism

• Platform(s): PlayStation, Mobile, PC
• Released: 2014
• Developer(s): Hyper Hippo Entertainment

This free-to-play clicker game is all about making money in both its theme and its gameplay. In the game, players invest in and upgrade various money-making ventures in order to earn as much cash as they possibly can, eventually turning AdVenture Capitalist into an idle game.

While it’s certainly not the most engaging, nor the most innovative game, AdVenture Capitalist is all about making money. However, as far as idle games go, AdVenture Capitalist is arguably one of the best, making it a great choice for fans of the genre.

7 Moonlighter

Action-Rogue-Lite Gameplay Meets Shop-Keeping

This action-RPG rogue-lite features a wonderful pixel-art aesthetic and charming character design, with a story that focuses on a fantasy shopkeeper who dreams of being a hero. Moonlighter may seem simple on the surface, but its two-phased gameplay loop helps to keep things engaging throughout.

One half of Moonlighterfocuses on managing a shop, where players are tasked with putting items on sale and making sure they’re set at the right price, as well as managing their gold and potential assistants. At night, however, players delve deep into the game’s dungeons in order to battle enemies and bosses while gathering as much loot as possible, focusing on bringing back the most valuable items.

6 Game Dev Tycoon

A Game Development Business Sim

This tycoon game takes players all the way back to the 80s and tasks them with building a video game company from the ground up, playing through the various eras of video game history, and making as many profitable games as they can along the way.

Game Dev Tycoon is about making games, but if those games fail to make money, players will soon lose. This makes a lot of Game Dev Tycoon’s gameplay loop highly focused on making as much money as possible, tasking players with carefully balancing and designing games for massive profits in order to progress.

5 Luck Be A Landlord

A Strategic Rogue-Lite Slot Machine

• Platform(s): PC, Mobile
• Released: 2023
• Developer(s): TrampolineTales

This rogue-like deck-building game focuses on a slot machine (though there are no microtransactions or any real gambling involved) which players fill with various symbols, building a “deck” of possibilities that can show up when spinning the slots, activating their unique effects and earning the player cash in order to pay their rent.

Failing to earn enough money to pay rent in Luck Be A Landlord results in a game over, making the player’s only objective to make as much money as possible. Luck Be A Landlord’s deck-building mechanics and variety of unique symbols to experiment with provide a strategic playground that’s made unpredictable through its RNG-heavy nature.

4 Papers, Please

A Dreary, Minimalist Experience

This smash-hit indie game features minimal graphics and heaps of dreary atmosphere in a compelling and at-times depressing experience in which players are tasked with controlling the flow of immigrants across a border, playing as an immigration inspector.

Papers, Please tasks players with inspecting documents and making decisions on who should be allowed across the border, all the while worrying about making as much money as possible either through handling as many entrants as possible or through taking bribes, in order to pay various expenses at the end of the day. Failing to pay these expenses results in the game ending.

3 OpenTTD

A Complex Management Game

• Platform(s): PC, Mobile
• Released: 2004
• Developer(s): OpenTTD

This open-source remake/expansion of the 1995 management game, Transport Tycoon Deluxe, is a free-to-play business simulation game that focuses on connecting cities and their industries via various forms of transportation, with the goal of turning a profit.

Being a business simulation game, it’s natural that OpenTTD is focused on making money, and this is especially so when the game is played against opponents, be they human or AI. In single-player, the game can become somewhat of a sandbox for experienced players, but OpenTTD is an addictive game with a lot of depth for those who are willing to look past the old-school graphics.

2 Hardspace: Shipbreaker

Meditative Sci-Fi Salvaging In Space

This uniquely relaxing game can be a rewarding experience for those who don’t mind meditative gameplay. In Hardspace: Shipbreaker, players are tasked with salvaging spaceships for valuables in order to pay off a crushing debt. Using cutting lasers and tractor beams, players will carve out each ship carefully, making sure not to accidentally kill themselves in the process.

Despite being a relatively laid-back experience, there are moments of challenge and tension in Hardspace: Shipbreaker that do require players to focus, especially if they want to get the maximum value out of a salvage.

1 Payday 2

Chaotic Multiplayer Heisting

This FPS action game with stealth elements tasks players with pulling off various heists in their own unique way, choosing the right equipment and strategy for each job, coming up with a plan, enacting it, and adapting when everything inevitably goes horribly wrong.

Despite having options for single-player with its AI bots, Payday 2 is best experienced in co-op, especially with friends. The game, as its name implies, is entirely focused on making as much money as possible during each heist, leading to some intense and dramatic risk-reward situations where players risk getting caught for an extra bit of cash.