Empire Builders: Tycoons Worth the Mortgage

Every portfolio on this ledger starts with a question, and this one's is simple: which of the hundred-odd tycoon and management files would we stake an evening on? The answer below favours games with a visible arc — a first till, a first expansion, a first moment where the business starts paying you back faster than you can spend it. Plenty of tycoon games simulate owning things; the ones gathered here simulate building them.

The order follows the book, strongest files first. Our notes mark the personalities: the builders that want a skyline, the operators that want a well-run room, and the one very confident fry business that treats potatoes as a vertically integrated empire. All of them are free, all of them run in the browser, and none of them will ask for your card details — the mortgages here are strictly metaphorical.