A music career game for iPhone · Free
Write songs. Climb real charts.
Chart Topper is a music career game you play against real people. Write songs from the cards in your hand, record and release them, and play your way up from open mics to stadiums. Every song you put out competes on live charts shared with every other player. The charts update every six hours, and a turn takes minutes.
Reading the latest chart…
How it plays
Four times a day the world deals you a fresh hand of cards and a few minutes of decisions.
1 Write
Pick cards from your hand and turn them into a song. You see what it is worth before you commit.
2 Record
The studio, the producer and your gear decide how much better it comes out than you wrote it.
3 Release
Put it out, promote it, play it live. Your own songs draw bigger crowds than covers.
4 Chart
Your song takes its place against everyone else’s. Six charts, updated every six hours.
Every rival is a real person
No script, and no generated opposition. One world, and everybody is in it.
One shared world
Everybody plays the same season on the same six charts. There is no private world where you are number one.
A shared audience
A genre only has so many listeners, and the songs competing in it split them. Chart positions move when people release, not on a schedule.
Nothing expires on a timer
Your track does not fade out on a schedule. It holds its place until somebody writes a better one.
Everyone gets the same turns
Four fresh hands a day for every artist in the season. Time at the screen does not buy extra ones.
Start at an open mic. Earn the stadium.
Seven rooms between your first Tuesday night and a world tour. Which one you are playing comes down to how your songs are doing against everyone else's.
Tuesday Open Mic
The Back Room
The Sticky Floor
The Old Majestic
The Almost-Arena
The Hometown Stadium The Sold-Out World TourNobody else can write your song
Songs are written from cards: talent, collaborators and gear. Everyone starts with the same ten. What you collect from there is your sound.
Questions people ask
What is Chart Topper?
Chart Topper is a music career game for iPhone that you play against other people. You write songs from a hand of cards, record and release them, play shows, and compete for positions on charts that update every six hours. Everyone else on those charts is a real player.
Do I actually play against other people?
Yes, and it is the point of the game. There is one world, one season and one set of charts, shared by everybody playing. The artists ranked above and below you are other people, not opposition the game generated to keep you company.
How is this different from other music career games?
Most of them are single player: you grow your own numbers in your own world, and the charts are made up. Chart Topper is the same fantasy played competitively. A genre only has so many listeners, and they are shared out between the songs competing in it, so a position you take is one somebody else does not have.
Is Chart Topper free?
Yes. There are optional cosmetics and an optional paid competitive season. Nothing you buy makes your songs chart higher, so nobody outranks you by spending.
Do I need to know card games to play?
No. Your cards are the ingredients you write with, and the game shows you what a song is worth before you commit to it.
How much time does it take?
A few minutes, a couple of times a day. The world moves in six-hour game weeks and nobody can do more in a game week than anyone else, so time at the screen is not what decides the standings.
What happens while I am asleep?
Your released songs keep earning and the charts keep moving. You cannot lose progress overnight.
Can I lose my spot on the chart?
Only to a better song. Nothing pushes your track down on a timer, so a song you are proud of can chart for weeks.
What platforms is it on?
iPhone. There are no plans for other platforms.
Is it like other games I might know?
It borrows the music career fantasy from Project Rockstar and the build-your-own-deck idea from Dominion and Slay the Spire, but it is far gentler than either, and unlike most music career sims it is played against other people rather than alone.
Somebody is number one right now.
It is a person, and they had to beat everyone else to get there.
The game is not out yet. The Discord is.
Patch notes before anyone else gets them, chart talk while the standings are moving, and a say in what gets built next. The person making the game reads every channel.
Your music, playing in the game.
The in-game rotation is open to real artists. Free, a month at a time.
If you know these games The career fantasy comes from Project Rockstar, the collection idea from Dominion and Slay the Spire. This one is gentler than any of them, and you play it against other people.