On February 20, the Balatro poker "bagel" was released. The game immediately became a commercial success for the LocalThunk studio and the Playstack publishing house.
Balatro
The head of Playstack, Harvey Elliott, in an interview with the GamesIndustry portal, said that in just an hour of sales, Balatro earned enough to recoup all costs. He did not specify the amount, but said that the game earned its first million dollars eight hours after release.
Balatro is now the fastest selling game in the Playstack portfolio.
Interestingly, the author of Balatro, in an interview with the PC Gamer portal, admitted that he does not play poker himself.
"Poker is a good thematic reference because people immediately understand some of the mechanics of Balatro. I can use poker terminology, use visual images such as blinds, antes, chips and the like to give the whole thing integrity. But I don't play poker, I'm not interested in it," the developer said.
Earlier, LocalThunk and Playstac reported that Balatro sold over 250,000 copies in the first three days. The game is available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch.