Vol. I — No. 35

ERSTWHILE

Price $10,000

2026

erstwhile.io, not the other games

What is Erstwhile, the daily investing game?

Erstwhile is the free browser puzzle at erstwhile.io. You invest $10,000 across a hidden year and find out, five years later, whether you beat an S&P 500 fund.

FieldReadingStatus
NameErstwhileOfficial · 1 source
Addresserstwhile.ioOfficial · 1 source
PriceDaily free; Supporter $2.49/mo or $8.99/yrOfficial · 1 source
AccountNot required; Google sign-in is optional2 sources
AdsPublic pages say no ads; dormant slots were empty on 11 Nov 2026Official claim + live check
MakerNot named; the supporter note says one personOfficial · 1 source
On AlldleSince October 2026; 11.1k plays listedAlldle · 1 source
Puzzle numberNo. 35 on 11 November 2026, derived from the public archiveDerived · official page
Illustrated newspaper desk with a cream certificate, ten chips, and a green year stamp for the daily investing game
A cream certificate of speculation with a green double border and a burgundy stamp, no puzzle answer shown

What you actually do

Each local midnight brings one puzzle. Players on the same local date get that same puzzle. The hidden window is the end of a year between 2005 and 2020, and you live with the portfolio for five years.

The board offers four stocks, two other assets, and cash. Ten chips of $1,000 are the whole stake. Four is the most any one option can hold. You may rebalance at year 2 and year 4. Year 5 is the reveal: your result, the S&P 500 fund, a daily rank, and a short backstory.

Same name, different works

Search results also show a Steam roguelike by Regular Software that is still marked coming soon, and a 2018 Twine story by Aster Fialla and Marijke Perry that placed fifth in IFComp. Neither one is the investing puzzle. The word itself just means “former.”

A separate site, erstwhilegame.online, copies the shape of the puzzle and is not the game at erstwhile.io. I do not use it as a source for prices, rules, or dates.

When it started

The public terms page says “Last updated 4 November 2026.” That is a terms date, not a launch date. Alldle says the game has been listed since October 2026. The public archive on 11 November 2026 showed No. 35 as today, and a note in the page ties No. 24 to 31 October 2026. Counting back, No. 1 lands on 8 October 2026. I label that date as derived, not as an announcement.

Questions

Is Erstwhile free?

The daily puzzle is free. Supporter pricing on the public pages is $2.49 a month or $8.99 a year.

Is this the Steam game?

No. The Steam page is a coming-soon roguelike by Regular Software. This guide is about erstwhile.io.

Keep reading

How to playThe five-year sequence in order.Which Erstwhile?A table of the other works.Play onlineThere is no app and no download.

Sources