Balatro is a strange game about cheating at poker to create over-the-top combos, but the game itself seems to have hit the jackpot the old fashioned way. It’s now sold over one million copies, leaving its creator at a bit of a loss for words.
Quickly jumping onto our list of the best card games on PC, Balatro is a deck-building game built from first principles. It’s about video poker, sort of – but as the game progresses, you add increasingly bizarre cards to your deck, including tarot cards, a dazzling array of jokers, and vouchers.
The point is, it’s a game that’s tough to put down once you start playing it, and everyone who plays it seems to want to tell everyone they know about it. It’s been enough for Balatro to hit the staggering one million mark just a month after launch, and despite having faced store delisting over the mistaken notion that it involves gambling.
It’s not a common achievement for a debut indie game from a solo developer. As you might expect, that developer, who goes by LocalThunk, is a bit bowled over by it all.
“I’m so grateful to all the players and people that have made this happen,” LocalThunk wrote on Steam. “I still can’t grasp the response to this game, and I am overjoyed that so many people have been able to have fun with my silly creation. I’m so fortunate that I can continue working on my passion as a career. Thank you!”
The developer says there’s more “fun stuff planned for the future,” so it seems we still have more Balatro to discover ahead of us.
Find out what the Balatro blank voucher is for, or check out our Balatro review if you’d like to get our full impressions of this certified indie hit.
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