Map rules
Every country is held by whoever paid the most for it. No votes, no algorithm, no editorial judgement — the money is the whole mechanism.
What's on the board
- 194 countries: the 193 UN member states plus the Vatican and Palestine. Nothing disputed is listed and nothing disputed will be.
- Countries are priced in four bands, from $3 to $25, based on how much of the software buying world lives there. The band never changes.
- Landmasses that aren't on that list are drawn on the map in grey. They are not for sale.
Claiming empty land
- An unclaimed country costs its fixed base price. There is no bidding to be first — pay the price and it's yours.
- You can pay more than the base price if you want. Doing so makes it more expensive for anyone to take it from you later.
Taking a country from someone
- Pay more than the current holder paid. Any whole dollar above their number wins it, and your number becomes the new price.
- There is no waiting period and no auction. The moment your payment lands, the country is yours.
- Losing a country does not return your money. Your name stays in that country's history permanently.
Defending what you hold
- Submit the same country again with a higher number and you only pay the difference — everything you've already put in still counts.
- Nobody can take your country by paying that difference. They have to beat your total.
What you get
- Your favicon sits on the country, and the panel links straight to your site. The link points at your URL directly, not through a redirect.
- Every visit is counted and shown publicly, so the next buyer can see what a country is actually worth.
- Query parameters are stripped from every submitted link, so affiliate, referral and tracking URLs won't work.
- Group chat and invite links aren't listed, and neither is sexual or adult content.
Payments
- Whole US dollars only. Pocketsflow is the merchant of record and any applicable tax is shown before you pay.
- If somebody wins the country while your payment is going through, you aren't charged for a country you didn't get — that payment is refunded.
- Otherwise payments are non-refundable. Being outbid is not a refund reason.