TCG Card Shop Simulator Tournaments: Setup & Profit
Tournaments arrived in Early Access build 0.70 on 19 March 2026. Version 1.0 added the part players kept asking for: you can now enter your own bracket.
What you need before you can host
| Furniture needed | Tournament Prize Shelf, bought from MY DIY |
|---|---|
| Where you run it | The Tournament app on the in-game phone |
| Bracket sizes | 8, 16 or 32 players |
| Rounds | Three rounds on an 8-player bracket |
| When it runs | Registration opens today, the event itself is the next in-game day |
| Tables | Each play table must be given a table number, set manually or with auto-assign |
| Can you play? | Yes, since 1.0. If you place, you keep the prize. |
Setting one up, in order
- Buy and place the Tournament Prize Shelf. It is in MY DIY. Put it on the shop floor, not in the storage room — see the known issues below.
- Fill it. Drop a box of packs or a handful of singles into the shelf the same way you stock anything else.
- Open the Tournament app on the phone and choose which shelf items go to 1st, 2nd, 3rd and top 8.
- Pick a bracket size and set the entry fee against the prize pool you just assigned.
- Start registration. Register yourself too if you want a shot at your own prizes.
- Number the tables. Left-click each play table and give it a number, or use auto-assign. Unnumbered tables cannot host matches.
- Open the shop the next day. Participants arrive and seat themselves; the TV shows the live bracket. Winners gather at the prize shelf to collect and pose.
Prize tiers
| Placement | What to put there | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Your best single or a sealed box | This is the advertised prize; it is what pulls a full bracket. |
| 2nd | Mid-value single or a Legendary pack | |
| 3rd | Mid-value single or a Legendary pack | |
| Top 8 | Cheap packs | Filled from the same shelf, so budget the shelf as one prize pool, not four. |
Making it profitable
A tournament is a trade: you give away stock and get back entry fees plus a day of concentrated footfall. It only clears when the fee covers the shelf and the crowd buys on the way through.
| Lever | How it moves the result |
|---|---|
| Entry fee | You set it. Revenue = fee × entrants, collected on the event day. |
| Prize pool | Comes straight out of stock you could have sold. Value the shelf at shelf price, not at cost. |
| Store rating | A clean, well-stocked shop fills brackets. Under roughly 4.7 stars, high fees leave seats empty. |
| Bracket size | 32 players over the same fixed prize shelf is where the format turns into real profit. |
| Footfall | Entrants shop before and after their matches, so the retail side is part of the return. |
The rating threshold is the part people skip. Charging a high fee in a shop under roughly 4.7 stars leaves seats empty, and an under-filled bracket pays out the same prizes against fewer fees — a straight loss. Clean the floor, stock the shelves and fix the queue before you raise the price.
Known issues still worth planning around
- Winners occasionally fail to path to the Prize Shelf. Keeping the shelf on the shop floor rather than in the storage room avoids most of it.
- Saving mid-tournament corrupted save files before 0.70.1; ending the day mid-event scrambled pairings before 0.70.3.
- Build 1.02 shipped a fix for tournaments that would not progress, and for the player being unable to join a match that had not started.
Frequently asked questions
How many players can a tournament have?
Eight, sixteen or thirty-two. Eight is the minimum the app will accept, and the size is chosen before registration opens.
How many rounds is a tournament?
An eight-player bracket runs three rounds across the event day.
Can you play in your own tournament?
Yes, since version 1.0. Register yourself alongside the customers, and if you place you keep the prize from that tier.
Why can I only host 8 players?
Bracket size is picked in the Tournament app before registration. If 16 and 32 are greyed out you have not set up enough numbered play tables for the larger bracket to seat everyone.
Tournament data checked: