Balatro

Balatro is a 2024 poker-themed roguelike deck-building game developed by LocalThunk and published by Playstack. It was released on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on February 20, 2024, with a port to macOS on March 1. Ports for Android and iOS were released on September 26, 2024. In the game, the player plays poker hands from a starting 52-card deck to score points and defeat blinds in a limited number of turns. Subsequent blinds become more difficult to beat, but the player can acquire joker and other cards, purchased from a shop with randomized offerings between blinds, that provide unique effects that impact play and scoring or the means to change the composition of their deck to give themselves an advantage.
The game was developed over a two-and-a-half year period by sole developer LocalThunk, inspired by the card game Big Two and the roguelike video game Luck Be a Landlord. LocalThunk had only seen the game as a side project to put on a resume, not anticipating the success of the game.
Balatro received universal acclaim from gaming critics, and by January 2025, had sold more than 5 million copies. In addition to several other awards and nominations, Balatro won Game of the Year for the 2024 Game Developers Choice Awards, while nominated for the top prize at The Game Awards 2024, the 28th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, and the 21st British Academy Games Awards.
Balatro is a roguelike deck-building game based on the rules of Poker. The player chooses a deck, each with unique effects and cards, before each playthrough or "run". A run is divided into antes, with three blinds each of increasing difficulty. A blind consists of multiple rounds, in which the player chooses and plays cards to form poker hands and attempts to score at least a required number of chips (points). To defeat blinds more easily, the player may choose to buy various cards which change the rules of the game. These items are bought in a shop in between rounds.
Each ante consists of three rounds: a Small Blind, Big Blind, and Boss Blind. Small and Big Blinds can either be skipped or played; on skipping a blind, the player forgoes the normal rewards of defeating the blind or an opportunity to use the shop, but is rewarded with a tag. Most tags give some benefit upon entering the next shop like free cards or booster packs, but some give effects instantly or when other criteria are met. Boss blinds provide additional challenges, such as debuffing the effects of certain cards or requiring the player to clear the round in only one hand.
In each blind, players have a limited number of hands within which they must beat a target score, as well as a limited number of discards with which they may replace up to five cards in their hand with different ones. The game ends if the player runs out of hands or cards to play before reaching the target score.
During a round, the player draws cards from a deck of cards, starting with a standard 52-card deck, with playing cards added and destroyed throughout the game. The player then selects up to five cards, with the objective of forming poker hands to score points. The hand's base value is calculated and turned into "Chips," which are then multiplied by "Mult" score, which increases depending on cards, hands, and current jokers. Joker cards affect the game in various ways, such as offering additional Chips or Mult when conditions are met or changing how certain poker hands can be played.
Once a blind has been defeated, players are awarded with cash based on their performance, after which they are taken to a shop. Here, the player may use cash earned by clearing blinds or selling unwanted cards to purchase individual cards, packs containing a random set of cards to choose from, and vouchers which add additional perks and conditions for the remainder of the run. After the player wins 8 antes, completing a run, they can continue the game in an endless mode where they see how many points they can get.. The eighth ante will contain a "Finisher Blind", which are harder blinds only seen on antes that are multiples of 8. The player is capable of beating 39 antes in endless mode before the game reaches an unwinnable state due to a floating-point overflow.
Jokers are the primary means by which players can alter their scoring in the game, among other effects. The game was released with 150 Joker cards. Many Jokers provide Chips or Mult bonuses based on certain conditions, and some provide an additional Mult multipliers. Other Jokers can reward money or consumable cards on meeting their conditions. Jokers can be found with or upgraded to variants like Foil, Holographic, Polychrome, or Negative versions which provide further bonuses. Part of the strategy of Balatro is filling one's limited Joker slots with Jokers that have interactions with each other and other cards to greatly increase scoring opportunities.
Players can shape the deck through various means, which can be used to improve the odds of drawing specific hands. Additional playing cards can be obtained through booster packs at the shop. Tarot cards provide various one-time effects, such as changing cards to different playing card suits, enhancing them to provide bonuses when played, or eliminating cards. While Spectral cards similarly, provide much stronger various one-time effects. Between these, it is possible to play non-traditional poker hands such as Five of a Kind, Flush House (full house of all the same suit), and Flush Five (five of the same suit and rank).
Planet cards raise the level of select poker hands, increasing their base Chips and Mult values when played. Spectral cards provide more effects beyond what Tarot cards can offer, such as applying finishes to cards that automatically apply bonuses under certain conditions.
The types of card decks that the player chooses at the beginning of a run also have their own effects; the player starts out with a "starter" series of decks, and completing runs can unlock new ones. Clearing runs also unlocks "stakes" for the deck used which add more difficult conditions to the run. New special cards and vouchers can be unlocked for future runs by clearing certain conditions.
Balatro was developed by LocalThunk, an anonymous solo developer based in Saskatchewan, Canada. In an interview, he said that he mostly plays online competitive games, and that he ponders roguelike games more than actually playing them. Despite the game's theme, LocalThunk said he doesn't play poker, nor does he want the game to be used for gambling by casinos and players.
Development began in 2021, two-and-a-half years before release, and the game was initially intended to be one of several small games that were shared with friends. The initial idea was an online version of the Cantonese card game Big Two, which has players playing a number of cards to create poker-like hands. After seeing the number of roguelike deckbuilders on Steam, and after watching a Twitch stream of Northernlion playing Luck Be a Landlord, a slot machine-themed roguelike, he was inspired to turn his Big Two clone into a single-player roguelike deckbuilder without online play. According to LocalThunk, he avoided playing any of the other deckbuilders to avoid taking ideas from these games, and had only played Slay the Spire near the end of development to understand how that game implemented its control scheme. He at one point considered the name Joker Poker for the game, before settling on balatro, a professional jester or buffoon.
On using the standard 52 playing card deck as a base LocalThunk said, "It’s this shared cultural game design tool that has evolved over hundreds of years," and on the game's success was quoted as being partly "because you’re borrowing from this really tried-and-true tool."
The soundtrack for Balatro was written and produced by LouisF, a freelance Fiverr artist. The composer was contacted in March 2023, and the music was released the same month. In his published timeline of the game's production, LocalThunk noted that it was the only money that he planned to spend during the development of Balatro.
A very early version of the game was circulated among his friends, who gave positive reviews after months of playing. About a year prior to release, LocalThunk quit his day job to focus on finishing Balatro "to put on a resume". He signed a publishing contract with PlayStack, and with their help developed a launch campaign around beta releases and promotion via major video game streamers. LocalThunk used player feedback from the betas for additional features in the final version of the game, including the addition of boss battles.
Balatro was programmed in Lua with the Löve game framework. LocalThunk's pseudonym derives from Löve's way of declaring variables, "Local", and a common variable name in his partner's projects, "Thunk".
In 2023, prior to release, the game became available as a demo. It was removed by LocalThunk on January 1, 2024, and was brought back on January 25, with the new version containing 40 new Jokers, new bosses, and the ability to buy booster packs. The new version was uploaded alongside a new trailer and a release date for the full version of the game, February 20. In April 2024, the game was made easier with an experimental balance patch, 1.0.1c.
Shortly after the game's release, Balatro's PEGI rating was changed from 3+ to 18+ for "prominent gambling imagery" due to PEGI's strict rules on portraying gambling, causing the game to be temporarily removed from sale in certain territories. Publisher Playstack stated that they had discussed the game's content with PEGI prior to release (causing its initial 18+ rating to be lowered to 3+) and that, while being based on poker, the game does not portray any form of gambling, and intended to appeal the re-rating. LocalThunk criticised the rating change saying, "Maybe I should add microtransactions/loot boxes/real gambling to lower that rating to 3+ like EA Sports FC". The ruling was successfully appealed to PEGI in February 2025, and along with Luck be a Landlord, was reclassified with a 12+ rating, recognizing that the fantasy elements of the game distinguished it from gambling. PEGI has stated they will introduce more granular classification rules for future games involving gambling-like elements. After YouTube changed its policies in March 2025, many Balatro videos were marked as 18+ for "depictions or promotions of online casino sites or apps", blocking these videos from child YouTube accounts.
Four free "Friends of Jimbo" updates, adding interchangeable cosmetic packs featuring crossovers with other video games, were released on August 27, October 24, December 12, 2024 and February 24, 2025 respectively. The first update features crossovers with The Witcher 3, Vampire Survivors, Dave the Diver and Among Us, the second update features crossovers with Cyberpunk 2077, The Binding of Isaac, Slay the Spire and Stardew Valley, the third update features crossovers with Divinity: Original Sin II, Shovel Knight, Potion Craft, Enter the Gungeon, Cult of the Lamb, Don't Starve, 1000xResist and Warframe, and the fourth update features crossovers with Critical Role, Bugsnax, Sid Meier's Civilization VII, Rust, Assassin's Creed, Slay the Princess, Dead by Daylight and Fallout.
Additionally, content based on Balatro was added to Dave the Diver via a free update released on October 24, 2024. A large update to Cyberpunk 2077 in December 2024 added a Balatro-themed quest.
LocalThunk and Playstack confirmed plans for ports to Android and iOS mobile devices in March 2024. The ports were released on September 26, 2024, including a Balatro+ version for Apple Arcade. The ports grossed $1 million in a week and $4.4 million in 2 months.
A physical deck of playing cards using Balatro's pixel graphic arts, produced by Fangamer, is set to be released sometime in 2025.
Balatro has received "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator Metacritic. OpenCritic, another aggregator, said that 100% of critics recommend the game.
The game's playability has received praise from critics. Simon Cardy from IGN described it as "ludicrously fun" and "remarkably approachable," while Jordan Helm from Hardcore Gamer called it "addictive" and "expertly-crafted". Charlie Brooker, the creator of Black Mirror, called it "possibly the most addictive thing ever created" and that once it was released for mobile devices, "humankind's activity is going to drop about 25%". Writing for The Guardian, Keza MacDonald stated that "Balatro might be the best card game you will ever come across".
In addition, the game's roguelike elements have received positive reviews. Abbie Stone from PC Gamer described gameplay as "strategizing your way to success," and Alessandro Barbosa from GameSpot called each run "surprisingly fresh." Chris Allnutt writing in Financial Times praised the "wonderfully retro VCR-style visuals, lo-fi music and irreverent sound effects."
With the success of Balatro, LocalThunk kept to a low profile, not wanting much attention on their real-world identity and avoiding the stress that would come with it. They have also used the attention drawn to Balatro to highlight other indie titles released near the same time, including naming Animal Well, Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers, Arco, Nova Drift, Ballionaire, and Mouthwashing for their "Golden Thunk Awards". While LocalThunk and his partner had been present at the Game Awards, he told no one else who they were, and opted to allow representatives from PlayStack to accept the awards Balatro won on his behalf; a similar arrangement was made for the Game Developers Choice Awards, with PlayStack representatives accepting the awards for Balatro while LocalThunk remained anonymous at the event.
Following its popularity, the game has inspired significant activity from the player community, including memes, the integration of other games within it, and an unofficial port to the Apple Watch developed in January 2025, called Wee Balatro, which is awaiting the author’s approval.
Within eight hours of release, the game had made over US$1 million in gross revenue according to publisher Playstack. Over one million copies were sold within the first month. By January 2025, the game had surpassed 5 million copies, with around half of those coming after the mobile releases in September 2024, and does not account for those playing the game for free through Apple Arcade.
Balatro received nominations for multiple accolades. In 2024 it won Golden Joystick Awards' "Best Indie Game" and "Breakthrough" awards. At The Game Awards 2024, it won "Best Independent Game", "Best Debut Indie Game", and "Best Mobile Game"; it was also nominated for "Game of the Year", the first time a solo game project was nominated for the top honor. It also received awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences for "Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game", "Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year", and "Mobile Game of the Year" at the 28th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.