Developer LocalThunk’s breakout, poker-themed hit in the form of Balatro, has found itself passing another major milestone when it comes to total copies sold. As if managing to rack up atotal of 250,000 copiesin the span of a mere three days wasn’t impressive enough, the roguelike deck-builder has done one better and in the span of the roughly two-week period it’s been made available, has – asannouncedby the game’s publisher Playstack – now passed total sales of 500,000 copies. For a small, humble little digital-only title such as this, it’s a phenomenal achievement. But one that comes as no surprise if one were to even take a passing glance at both the game’s critical and consumer reception. Scoring high on both fronts with an aggregate rating still in the 90’s for the former, with the game’s Steam reviews still holding at a “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating.
Review: Balatro
Simple to get into, hard to put down, Balatro’s endless possibilities result in one of the best and most rewarding takes on deck-building yet.
A Winning Streak
Today’s news also comes off the back of what’s been a somewhat bothersome issue with the game’s sudden change of age rating and subsequent delisting on storefronts in certain territories. The PEGI-rated territories of Europe, Australia and New Zealand changing course on their earlier decision to rescind their initial 18+ rating and replace it with that of a 3+ rating. Fortunately, Playstack issued a statementearlier this weekstating their confidence that the decision will be once again overturned and the game’s restriction on Switch – the only platform this change seemed to have impacted – will cease at some point in the near future.
But for a game to go through this sort of post-release annoyance and still come out swinging in terms of sales, shows just how brilliantly-crafted a release Balatro truly is. A game that has made waves via its own quality and through plenty of word-of-mouth prior to release helping it to establish an anticipated playerbase. Balatro is out now across PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch & PC. If you still need convincing that this is a must-play for 2024 – regardless of one’s personal history with roguelikes and deck-builders alike – don’t forget to check up on our review righthere.
