Pixel Sundays: Balatro – The Poker Roguelike Hit of the Year
This week in our Pixel Sundays article, we’re once again talking about an indie game. The game in question recently won the award for Best Debut Game at the BAFTA Games Awards 2025. The game is called Balatro.
Overview
- Development Story – From Hobby Project to Indie Hit
- Balatro Gameplay – A New Take on Poker
- Success and Awards
- Controversies – Age Ratings and Gambling Debate
- The Future of Balatro – Expansions and Updates
- Conclusion – A Must-Play for Card and Roguelike Fans
Balatro combines classic poker mechanics with roguelike elements, delivering a unique gaming experience. The game was developed by a single developer, LocalThunk, from Canada, and published by Playstack. It quickly gained a large fanbase.
Development Story – From Hobby Project to Indie Hit
Development of Balatro began in December 2021 as a hobby project by Canadian solo developer LocalThunk. Initially, he wanted to create an online version of the Cantonese card game “Big Two”, but inspired by the roguelike title *Luck Be a Landlord*, he shifted the concept into a single-player deckbuilding game. He was very focused on maintaining originality, so he deliberately avoided playing other deckbuilders like *Slay the Spire*, only checking them out near the end of development.
A year before Balatro’s release, LocalThunk quit his job to dedicate all his time to finishing the game. He shared an early version with some friends who gave him extremely positive feedback. Motivated by their response, he worked even harder. Throughout development, he also listened to tester feedback and added requested features such as boss fights and more. Teaming up with the publisher Playstack allowed him to release the game on multiple platforms.
The last few months before release were very stressful for LocalThunk. He experienced health issues such as insomnia and panic attacks. Even after launch, he chose to remain anonymous to avoid additional stress. That’s why awards (which we’ll discuss later) were accepted by Playstack representatives.
Balatro was released after two and a half years of development on February 20, 2024 for Windows, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. Versions for macOS (March 1, 2024) and Android and iOS (September 26, 2024) followed later.
Despite minimal marketing, Balatro quickly became a surprise hit. In the first 3 days after release, it sold over 250,000 copies. By January 2025, sales had exceeded 5 million units.
Balatro Gameplay – A New Take on Poker
The core concept of Balatro is to build poker hands to defeat blinds. You start each run with a standard 52-card deck and your goal is to play poker hands (like a straight, full house, etc.) to earn points. These points must surpass the so-called “blinds”. Each “ante” (which is like a level) has three blinds: Small Blind, Big Blind, and Boss Blind. The Boss Blind presents an extra challenge, such as disabling certain cards or limiting game mechanics. Between blinds, you can buy new cards, jokers, or upgrades from the shop to improve your deck.
Let’s start with the Joker cards. Balatro features over 150 unique Joker cards, each offering passive effects that heavily influence gameplay. Some jokers multiply points for specific hands, others give extra chips or creatively change the rules. Jokers come in different rarities: Common (70% chance), Uncommon (25%), and Rare (5%). Legendary jokers can only be obtained through special cards like the “Soul” spectral card.
Besides Joker cards, there are other special card types:
- Tarot Cards: These offer a one-time effect, such as doubling your money, modifying some cards, or generating random planet or joker cards.
- Planet Cards: These enhance specific poker hands like pairs or straights by increasing their base chips and multipliers.
- Spectral Cards: Offer powerful bonuses, but at a high cost. For example, the “Wraith” card gives you a rare joker but costs all your money.
- Vouchers: These are permanent upgrades you can buy in the shop during a run. There are 32 vouchers – 16 base ones and 16 upgraded versions. Voucher effects include things like more cards in your hand.
As with every roguelike, every run is unique. If you fail and don’t score enough points, the game ends. You have to start over, and there are no permanent upgrades to help you on your next run. Every round is absolutely unique. The available cards, jokers, and shop offers change in every game. And the game gets harder with every ante, especially the Boss Blinds become a real challenge.
Success and Awards
Balatro became a commercial success right after its release on February 20, 2024. Within the first month, the game sold over a million copies. By January 21, 2025, sales had risen to over five million. Notably, over a million of these sales happened after the game’s presentation at The Game Awards 2024, highlighting how events like these can significantly boost indie game sales.
The game is loved by both players and critics. On Steam, it has a 98% positive rating from over 110,000 reviews. Critics also love the game. On Metacritic, it scored 90%, and on OpenCritic, 100% of reviewers recommend it.
Balatro has won several major awards over the last two years:
- The Game Awards 2024: Winner in the categories Best Independent Game, Best Debut Indie Game, and Best Mobile Game.
- Game Developers Choice Awards 2025: Awards in the categories Game of the Year, Best Debut, Best Design, and Innovation Award.
- BAFTA Games Awards 2025: Winner in the category Debut Game. Since LocalThunk didn’t want to appear in person, actor Ben Starr accepted the award as the joker Jimbo. It made for a very funny award acceptance, which you can also watch here.
Controversies – Age Rating and Gambling Debate
After Balatro’s release on February 20, 2024, it initially received a PEGI age rating of 3+, but this was quickly raised to 18+ due to the game containing “prominent gambling imagery” and “teaching skills and knowledge used in poker.” This reclassification led to the game being temporarily removed from some digital stores.
Of course, developer LocalThunk wasn’t happy and expressed his frustration. He publicly pointed out that Balatro does not include real gambling and has no microtransactions or real-money betting. He also criticized the inconsistency of other games with real gambling mechanics, like loot boxes in EA Sports FC, receiving lower age ratings.
In February 2025, after a successful appeal by publisher Playstack, PEGI changed Balatro’s rating from 18+ to 12+. PEGI staff concluded that while the game does explain poker hands, its roguelike deckbuilding mechanics and imaginative design provided mitigating factors justifying a lower age rating. PEGI also stated plans to develop new classification guidelines for games with gambling themes in the future.
Platforms like YouTube also saw issues related to the age rating and gambling theme. In April 2025, several videos from the “Balatro University” channel were age-restricted due to changes in YouTube’s gambling content policies. After public criticism, including from developer LocalThunk, YouTube admitted that these age restrictions should not have been applied and announced a review of their guidelines.
Future of Balatro – Expansions and Updates
About half a year ago, in August 2024, we received the last major update for Balatro. The free DLC was titled “Friends of Jimbo”. It introduced cosmetic card skins featuring characters from popular games. You can replace face cards with characters from titles like The Witcher 3, Vampire Survivors, Stardew Valley, Cyberpunk 2077, Slay the Spire, Among Us, Dave the Diver, The Binding of Isaac, Enter the Gungeon, Shovel Knight, Cult of the Lamb, Don’t Starve, Fallout, Assassin’s Creed, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Critical Role, and Bugsnax.
For 2025, a major and free gameplay update is planned. It aims to introduce new ideas and strategies to the game. While no specific details have been announced yet, it’s expected to include new cards, mechanics, and possibly even new game modes. Developer LocalThunk emphasizes that this update is a thank-you to the passionate community and will be available across all platforms. There is no release date for the update yet.
Conclusion – A Must-Play for Card and Roguelike Fans
Balatro is a prime example of how creative vision, thoughtful game design, and a dedicated community can turn a small indie game into an international success. The blend of classic poker and fresh roguelike mechanics creates an almost addictive gameplay loop that constantly surprises. Despite the age rating controversy and stressful development period, LocalThunk succeeded in creating a game that stands out both in terms of gameplay and cultural impact. If you’re even slightly into card games, you won’t want to miss Balatro.
Hey, I’m Kilian, but online you’ll probably know me as “Tux1243.” I've been part of the team for almost two years now, always trying to keep you in the loop with the latest and coolest gaming news. I also have a huge passion for doing deep dives and detailed analyses of entire game series and franchises. I love getting to the bottom of things and exploring the little details and backstories that make game worlds so fascinating.
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It is pretty addictive but I haven't gone fully into Balatro for fear of getting myself hooked and not being able to play anything else.
Haydeho! A game with 150 jokers? I can't say no ;)
Even before this game was released I was a huge fan of Luck Be A Landlord, seeing Balatro become a huge success has been amazing and I'm glad its led to a lot more deck builder type games being released. I might not be the best at them but the gameplay loop is very addicting.
Congratulations on the achievements of the developer of Balastro. And to be honest, it's not one of my favorite genres. But I find the design entertaining. And LocalThunk's story is motivating. Dreams and goals become reality as you wish. (chrisdholl)
Kinda cool you guys spend so much time on these articles for indie-games and developers. The game is not interesting for me so i don't really have some thoughts about that but the article and love is great. Keep it up!