A House Divided
Corporate Warfare
Grand Century
Desktop clientGetting started
Margin of Victory runs in your browser on desktop and mobile, and you can play your first campaign in a few minutes with nothing to install and nothing to buy. This page covers where to play, what is free, what the setup choices change, and how saves and unlocks work.
Play#
https://lakesidegames.net/games/electioneer/
The product page is https://lakesidegames.net/margin-of-victory/. Native phone and desktop apps are in development.
What it costs#
- Free for everyone: the 2024 and 2020 US elections and the daily challenge.
- Country bundles: $0.99 each for the other United States races (1960 to 2016), the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France or Australia.
- Complete Collection: $3.99 for every bundle, including elections added later.
- Supporter+ and Supporter++: plans that include the Complete Collection while they are active. Sign in with the same Lakeside account in the game.
- Earlier purchases: bundles or codes you already have stay yours and keep working.
You never need to pay to play the free elections. A locked election shows an Unlock prompt where you can buy it, sign in or redeem a code. Purchases follow your Lakeside account across devices. Store: https://lakesidegames.net/store/. See Elections for the full list.
Your first campaign#
- Pick an election. US 2020 is the original campaign and a good place to learn.
- Choose your side, running mate, difficulty, event mode and campaign length in the setup wizard.
- Follow the first-launch tutorial. It walks through one week of planning.
- Plan your week, end the turn, and read the week-in-review to see what moved and why.
Choosing a difficulty#
Difficulty makes the player stronger and the opponent weaker or stronger. It is also a multiplier on your final score (see Polls and scoring).
| Easy | Normal | Hard | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extra actions per week for you | +5 | +1 | 0 |
| Extra starting cash for you | +$110M | +$25M | $0 |
| How hard your actions land | 1.55 times | 1.15 times | 1.0 times |
| Starting map | Shifted in your favour | Historical | Historical |
| Opponent strength | Weak: 3 target states, 30% mistake rate, actions at 0.45 | Disciplined: 5 target states, 15% mistakes, actions at 0.53 | Ruthless: 8 target states, 5% mistakes, full strength |
| Score multiplier | 0.7 | 1.0 | 1.5 |
Other setup choices#
- Side. The Democratic ticket starts with $220M and the Republican ticket with $180M, before difficulty extras. Your candidate's traits (energy, charisma, fundraising) also differ. In 2020, Biden's energy of 55 gives 10 base actions and Trump's energy of 70 gives 11.
- Event mode. Historical fires the real beats of that year in order. Random or plausible deals a shuffled deck of generic debates and events, different every run.
- Campaign length. Standard is 9 weeks and is the only length used for the leaderboard. Short is 5 weeks and long is 14.
- Extras. What If turns one state into a tossup. Mirror Match gives you the underdog boost of +$40M and +2 weekly actions. Pandemic Mode brings COVID-era issues into any year.
Saves#
Your campaign is saved in your browser as you play, and you can pick it up where you left it. Clearing your browser data removes browser-only saves. Sign in with a Lakeside account and saves also sync to your account, so you can keep cloud saves, appear on leaderboards and use your supporter access on every device. If the connection fails, the game keeps playing and keeps the local save.
Other ways to play#
- Daily challenge: one shared election and seed each day, with a daily board, streaks and a result you can share. Everyone plays the same side.
- Campaign editor: build your own candidates and scenarios for any country, save them and share them as files.
- Next election: after a result, jump to the following election with your party, difficulty and event mode kept.
Common questions#
- What should I do first each week? Read the map and the trends screen, queue your setup actions on early days, then your payoffs. The campaign week and Campaign actions explain how.
- Why does my plan stop at three actions on a day? That is the daily cap.
- Which bloc should I chase? See Voter blocs.
Last checked: 2026-10-29, version October 2026 release
Where the numbers come from#
Difficulty values are in src/engine/setup.ts (player bonuses and action multiplier), src/engine/ai.ts (opponent strength) and src/engine/scoring.ts (score multiplier). Starting cash and the base action pool are in src/engine/setup.ts. Campaign lengths are in src/ui/SetupScreen.tsx. Pricing is in src/content/packs.ts. The Easy map shift is 0.55 on the vote scale.