The creator of the card "roguelike" Balatro admitted that the game's success has exceeded all expectations. According to LocalThunk, it was initially conceived as an experiment, and the working folder is still simply named "CardGame" and stored among other learning projects.
Balatro
He also responded on social media to a question about whether he anticipated such love for the project: "I expected that four of my friends and my parents would buy the game—and that would be great. So no, the whole year has been a series of crazy events."
Despite the developer's modest plans, Balatro quickly gained popularity. The game was released on PC and consoles on February 20. According to GameDiscoverCo, in its first month on Steam, it earned $10.2 million with 777,400 copies sold.
As of August 7, total sales of Balatro on major platforms had exceeded 2 million copies.
At the end of September, the game was released on mobile devices, where it topped sales charts within hours, surpassing Minecraft and Stardew Valley. The mobile version of Balatro brought the developer over $500 million in the first five days.
Additionally, LocalThunk is actively collaborating with other well-known titles. A recent update added cards featuring characters from Cyberpunk 2077, Stardew Valley, The Binding of Isaac, and Slay the Spire.