Looking for the sleeper game of the year? Balatro is the answer. Combine a high-stakes poker game with cheating blatantly and you get this card game, which is available via Steam Deck.
The poker-inspired rogue-like deck builder sold over half a million copies in 10 days, according to publisher Playstack. That’s a lot for what looks like an unassuming card game. Players are challenged through a series of stage-like Blinds by exceeding each one’s target score. You are given a hand of normal playing cards. You play the best four or five-card poker hand you can manage: flush, straight, three of a kind, all that. Each hand has its own number of chips and multiplier bonuses, and the deal is about shuffling closer to victory by making the most of the cards you’re dealt.
The game grossed over $1m in eight hours and is now coming to iPhone and Android (date remains unconfirmed). That’s according to the game’s anonymous solo developer LocalThunk and their publisher Playstack Games, who participated in a verified Reddit AMA last week. The game was originally shipped for Windows PCs and consoles and then came a MacOS port that you can access by buying the game on Steam.
“Early on I didn’t do most of the things that a solo dev should do: I didn’t send anything to streamers, it was mostly just a couple of smaller reddit posts that coincided with the Summer 2023 Next Fest. Somehow streamers got their hands on it and it really took off, then when Playstack got involved they handled pretty much all of the marketing plan! I think they did an awesome job,” LocalThunk said on a Reddit AMA.
In Latin, ‘Balatro’ means a professional jester or buffoon and the pronunciation goes something like this: BAH-lah-troh.