You wake up on January 1, 1999. Same head. Same memories. And twenty-seven years of stock market history about to happen all over again.
Shoulda Bought is a life-simulation tycoon game built on real market data. Every price you see is an actual monthly close — 485 real tickers, 1999 through 2026. Apple really did trade at thirty cents. Amazon really did fall ninety percent. You already know that. Now do something about it.
REAL PRICES, REAL HISTORY
- 485 real companies at their actual monthly prices, from the dot-com peak through 2008, COVID and the AI run
- The in-game newspaper prints the headlines from the month they happened
- No invented charts. If you remember it, it is in here.
331 TURNS. ONE LIFE.
Every turn is one month and you get 331 of them. Work a job, buy a house, start a business, max the 401(k) — or put everything into one ticker and find out. Rent comes due either way, and the tax bill arrives whether you planned for it or not.
HOLD TO BUY. LET GO TO SELL.
The day-trading round runs on real daily bars. Press and hold to go long and watch the line draw itself from your entry to right now. Release to close. A second finger doubles the position with borrowed money — and doubles what you can lose. Get liquidated and the round is over.
MONEY IS NOT THE ONLY SCORE
Meet people. Keep them. See up to five at once and find out exactly what that costs you in time, cash and nerve. Gifts, dates, jealousy, and endings that depend on who you actually chose.
YOU DID NOT ALL START IN THE SAME PLACE
Pick your origin: the projects, the suburbs, or the trust fund. Your final score is net worth weighted by where you came from — turning four hundred dollars into millions beats turning four million into slightly more.
THE RICH LIST
Your score is not only the money. Net worth times your origin multiplier, plus what you made of yourself — skills, health, credit, the things you actually finished. One life, one number, and a ranking that tells you whether you beat the life you were handed.
Free to play. There are no in-app purchases, no deposits and no prizes — every dollar in the game is fictional. Nothing here is financial advice. It is a game about hindsight, which is the one edge nobody can actually use.
