PBBG stands for persistent browser-based game. Two words do the work.
Browser-based means you play in a web page. Nothing to download, nothing to install. A phone works, a laptop works, a work computer you shouldn't be playing on works.
Persistent means the world doesn't reset. There are no matches and no rounds. When you close the tab, the game keeps running, and when you come back, everything that happened while you were away is still there.
Why persistence changes everything
In most games, your choices matter until the round ends. In a PBBG, a choice you make today is still there tomorrow, and so is everyone else's. That makes small things heavy. A low price you set on the market, a vote you cast, a flat you rent out to another player: they all stay in the world and keep having effects.
It also changes the rhythm. You don't need to play for hours. Most PBBG players check in a few times a day, make a handful of decisions and leave. The world moves on without them, and that's the point.
Real people, not scripts
The best PBBGs are built around other players rather than computer opponents. Prices move because people buy and sell. Politics happen because people run for office and other people vote. The game provides the rules; the players provide the story.
A short family tree
Browser games that keep running have been around for a long time: text-heavy strategy and economy games where a city, a company or a character grows slowly over weeks and months. Many of them are still alive and still have loyal communities, because the core idea holds up: a shared world, a long horizon, and other people. Torn is the best-known example, and we've collected games like Torn in a separate list.
Where Override fits
Override is a free PBBG about one shared city run by its players. You can choose where to live and rent apartments to other players, trade goods on a market where prices are set by players, and stand for mayor and decide how the city treasury is spent. The city lives on a hex map you can actually see, rather than in a list of menus.
Override is in its second alpha now: the first one ran with real players in spring 2026, and the city is being rebuilt so Alpha 2.0 is better than the first. If you'd like to be there on day one, join the waitlist.
