EDIT: thoughts on why it is your favorite would also be very welcome
Does Drug Wars count?
Game dev tycoon. Such a fun little game that goes through the history of games while you try to make it big from the 80s onwards. Super simple gameplay loop but fun.
Try Mad Games Tycoon 2 if you like Game Dev Tycoon, it’s a far more fleshed out (and involved) version of GDT.
The first Mad Games Tycoon is solid too. 2nd one is an evolution of the 1st one.
OpenTTD
OpenTTD is the best tycoon game. In second place there’s TTD.
Cities in Motion 1, while it’s not my most played tycoon game, it’s one of those game I keep coming back to.
I love the euro-focused scenarios and time-period selection. The visuals have their own distinct style. The game is also pretty hard and requires you to think about the core model of the game (which is a decent approximation of reality.
Runner-up: SimTower/YootTower, one first tycoon and gaming experiences. Gameplay still holds up very well even 30 years later. I wish there was remaster. We already have re-makes with games like Project Highrise and Mad Tower Tycoon.
RCT will forever be GOAT for me
Zoo
Railroad.
