The guide
Everything you need before you take the oath: the clock, the in-tray, your cabinet, the other presidents, the markets, and how your term is judged when you hand it over.
How it works
A term is seven real days. The world keeps turning when you close the tab, so the game is built around short visits: make the calls that matter, let your cabinet handle the rest.
You’re seated in one of 193 real countries, among real neighbours. Read the inauguration dossier, then swear in.
Crisis cards, budget calls and council votes land in your in-tray, each with a timer. Your cabinet runs the rest.
Message other presidents, sign treaties, break them if you can pay for it, and vote in the Global Council.
Write a note for your successor, get a grade, and see how you did against the caretaker.
01The term clock
Your term runs on real time, one week from oath to handoff. The game calendar turns every ten minutes, so a single week holds nearly three years of budgets, borders and headlines. You don’t have to watch it. You have to show up for the calls.
02The in-tray
Border flare-ups, budget calls, trade offers and council votes arrive as cards, each with a timer and a few real options. Your ministers recommend one. Decide in time, or the clock goes with their pick.
03Your AI cabinet
Set an autopilot limit and your ministers handle the routine work under it. Message any of them and they answer in character, with opinions of their own. Crises always wait for you.
04Diplomacy & the Global Council
Message your neighbours, coordinate with your regional bloc, sign treaties, and break them if you can live with the cost. All 193 seats vote in the Global Council, and everybody remembers how you voted.
05Markets
Fourteen commodities, from crude oil to cocoa, close every game-day and react to embargoes, export bans and shocks. Restrict an export and you’ll see it on the chart, and so will every country that buys from you.
A day in office
Presidential fits around your day. Here’s what a busy one can look like.
Every call your cabinet made overnight, listed in the Cabinet tab.
A border flare-up and a budget call. Five minutes over coffee.
They want to talk about a gas deal. You counter and go back to lunch.
A motion is open in the Global Council, with a day to vote. You vote, and the world sees how.
You go to bed. Until 07:00 your cabinet takes the routine calls, and crises wait for you.
Who’s in the world
Players like you, seated near each other so your neighbours are people you can actually deal with.
You + your regionAbout one seat in seven. They have handles and styles, vote in the council, send messages and propose treaties.
~15% of seatsEverywhere else. No president, but the economy, the borders and the markets keep moving.
Seats waiting for a playerThe handoff & your legacy
You’re scored against a caretaker: the same country from the day you took the oath, run as if the clock had decided every card. Inheriting a mess never counts against you. Beating the caretaker line does.
Handoff note · flags for your successor
— the outgoing presidentNext in office
Glossary
It’s free and it plays right here in your browser. Three steps and you’re in office.
On a computer? Scan to play on your phone.
Also on iPhone (beta)In your browser, for free: open presidential.app/play on a computer or phone and you can start as a guest straight away. Sign in with Google, Apple or an email link when you want to keep your seat across devices. There’s also an iPhone beta on TestFlight.
Play nowNo. A term is seven real days, and a game-day passes every 10 minutes, but your AI cabinet governs while you’re away and handles routine decisions under your autopilot limit. Crises wait for you. If a card’s clock runs out, the cabinet’s recommendation is applied.
You’re handed a seat. Matchmaking places you in a real country, usually near other human players, so your neighbours are people you can actually deal with. Seats rotate between terms.
Every world holds all 193 UN member states. Some seats are held by real players, some by AI presidents with their own styles, and the rest are run by caretaker cabinets. Human players tend to be grouped by region.
Against a caretaker: the same country from the day of your oath, run as if the clock had decided every card. Inheriting a mess doesn’t count against you; beating the caretaker line does. Your term also gets a grade.
You write a handoff note, your term gets a grade, and the next president inherits everything you leave, including any cards still on the clock. You can take another seat afterwards, and your record follows you in your profile and the Hall of Presidents.
The countries are the 193 real UN member states with real starting figures. Everything that happens to them, and every leader, is simulated.
Read the TermsPublic game data only: conflicts, treaties, council votes, markets, the leaderboard and a running feed, with players’ public handles. Messages are never shown there.
Watch the world liveYes. In a conversation or on a player’s country, open the … menu and choose Block or Report. A blocked player’s messages never reach you, and they aren’t told. Reports are reviewed by people, and an automatic filter masks profanity and removes contact details from everything players write.
Read the Community GuidelinesOnly if you allow it. Ministers and AI presidents are written by an AI model, and before your first message to one the game asks whether to allow AI replies. With them off, nothing you write, and not your handle, goes to the AI provider, and you get pre-written replies. Change it any time in Settings → Privacy → AI replies.
Read the Privacy PolicyYes, at any time: Settings → Delete account in the game, or email support. Your handle is removed from past records.
Read the Privacy Policy