Have you ever dreamed of leaving your day job behind and flipping houses for a living? (Us, too!) Thanks to a glut of shows likeFlip or FlopandProperty Brothers, the fantasy of fixing up shambolic properties and selling them at a profit has become a common one. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that House Flipper, a computer game that gives players the chance to do just that, has taken the internet by storm. Despite its simple premise—and considerably low stakes compared with other popular video games—House Flipper is currently the third best-selling game on all of Steam, a digital download platform for PC and Mac games, where it’s also amassed over 1,500 (mostly) favorable reviews since its May 17 release. Then there are the watchers: More than 12,000 Twitch usersfollow streams of the game, with some past play sessions (which can go on for hours) amassing up to 8,000 live viewers.
Even outside of gaming-centric platforms, House Flipper is making waves. More thanhalf a millionpeople have watched an hour-long video of YouTuber ZerkaaPlays cleaning up trash, reading in-game emails, and installing furniture. Cleary, there’s something fascinating—or at least incredibly novel—about this digital re-creation of the less obviously exciting aspects of the design world.
While the game’s buy low and sell high structure is straightforward, players have a great deal of flexibility and freedom when it comes to how they go about that process. If you’ve got an eye for interior design, you might buy an unfurnished space and choose from hundreds of objects to realize your aesthetic vision. If you’re more into fixer-uppers, you can use tools and play mini games, fixing the plumbing, electricity, and more to get a decrepit home up and running again.
As with any business, you’ll have to worry about balancing a budget. But after some successful sales, you'll have access to better tools and more cash for investments as you level up. Think of it all as a souped-up version of the “Buy” and “Build” modes that helped make The Sims so addictive in the early 2000s. Plus, with a price point of$17.99 on Steam, this simulated version of house flipping is considerably cheaper than putting a down payment on a dilapidated property and carries none of the attendant financial risk (or, it should be said, reward).
