The TrailData center–style game
Play the data center
Play the data center

The Trail

Data center–style gameFeatured · the newest gameWhy this is featuredOne place on the platform is featured at a time, and no game pays for it. For now it belongs to our newest game, which leads the site while it opens. Otherwise it goes to a game in its launch week, or to a scenario booked for a week of its own, and then passes in turn to the game seen least this week.

A real undertaking, a hard deadline, and the months roll by whether you are ready or not.

5–8 minutes
This week's real calls are in
A project lead at the door of a site trailer at dusk, a data-centre campus rising behind her under a storm.
5–8 minutes

How it plays

The site rising from an empty lot to a lit campus, and the county's seven seats voting one by one.

Screens from the game itself.
  1. The county votes on your land. Four ways to win it.

    1The county votes on your land. Four ways to win it.

  2. The months roll by, and the campus goes up.

    2The months roll by, and the campus goes up.

  3. A ribbon at night: the halls switch on.

    3A ribbon at night: the halls switch on.

Why it is real

This week's real calls

Sep 24, 2026

Oracle

Sent a force-majeure notice on a Stargate campus in New Mexico

Oracle sent a force-majeure notice on a Stargate campus in New Mexico, which lets it delay payments if the site misses its 2028 target. The gas pipeline meant to supply it has slipped to February 2027.

TechCrunch
What is really happening

Sep 22, 2026

Pima County Board of Supervisors (Arizona)

Voted 3–2 for a 120-day pause on new data-center projects

On September 22, Pima County, Arizona, voted 3–2 for a 120-day pause on new data-center projects.

KJZZ
What is really happening

What players did

Ribbons and headstones

64%

of runs reach an ending

39%

of endings are the ribbon

Running out of money

is how most runs that fail end

From 642 runs started, 410 finished, to Sep 30, 2026.

Discuss

What players are arguing about

All topics

3 more topics talk about how scenarios end, and open once you have finished one.

Updates

What changed in The Trail

All updates

  1. Sep 29, 2026

    This week's real calls are in

    Every scenario's closing screen now carries this week's decisions, from Texas's permit halt to the Panama Canal's new draft limit.

  2. Sep 27, 2026

    Your run is kept every month

    Close the tab in month nineteen and the run is waiting for you when you come back, on any page that offers Continue.

  3. Sep 22, 2026

    Virginia now tells you the route that works

    A careful small backer in Virginia could never go live, and nothing said so. The utility's account manager now names the route that does, and the state card warns before you choose it. Virginia is still the hardest place to build.

  4. Sep 14, 2026

    The Data Center is live

    The Trail is live with The Data Center: build a gigawatt campus for an AI tenant, from the county vote to the day the power comes on.