Modern markets offer their visitors different types of stands, restaurants and services. In Mercado de Lisboa, players buy stands in the market, open new companies that influence these stands and bring customers to them.

Mercado de Lisboa is a thinky filler, a tile placement game based on Lisboa's city building system in which players pay money to own stands in the market, open restaurants next to them to increase their profits and bring in customers who give money to the players with matching stands. Mercado de Lisboa is a fast game, very straightforward and easy to learn rules with deep tactical choices.