Balatro, the surprise smash-hit success of 2024 from a solo developer, has sold over 500,000 copies in just 10 days

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LocalThunk's game is a huge hit

Balatro
(Image credit: LocalThunk)

After being made by one developer and launching to rave reviews, smash-hit indie Balatro has soared past 500,000 copies sold in just 10 days after launch.

Balatro publisher Playstack has announced the new sales milestone for the beloved indie deck-building roguelike game. Balatro has now sold over half a million copies across PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch platforms since launch, thanks largely to incredibly strong word of mouth surrounding the game.

Before Balatro launched late last month, I couldn't have told you a thing about it. Now I'm staying up to ungodly hours of the night just hoping and praying to beat the game for the first time. It's been wonderful to see Balatro launch out of nowhere to such critical acclaim, and it's even better to see a huge audience raving about the game more than a week after launch.

If you somehow haven't heard of Balatro, it basically takes the form of a poker roguelike game. You start with a standard deck of cards and need to play strong poker hands to score more chips to beat a round and upgrade your deck in the shop. You might boost a card to reward you 10 times more chips when played or get a crafty Joker card, which ups your multiplier by a few dozen whenever you play three of a kind.

That's all vastly underselling Balatro's creative genius, mind you. What makes Balatro an even more fantastic success story is the fact that it's made by an anonymous solo developer. 'LocalThunk' is the moniker of this mysterious individual, and they told us last month in our big Balatro interview that the game was made over the course of two-and-a-half years. 

If you haven't checked out Balatro, I can't recommend it enough. Just a few days ago, in fact, Balatro beat the record peak concurrent player count of Slay the Spire, and if you know anything about how wildly popular and influential that roguelike has been over the past few years, you'll know that's an impressive feat. 

Read up on our upcoming indie games guide for a look ahead at all the other small-time games we've got to look forward to in the coming months. 

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer
Freelance Writer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.