Balatro
LocalThunk · Playstack
Balatro is a solo poker roguelike: you play poker hands, then buy jokers that rewrite how a hand scores.
What kind of game is it?
A deckbuilder that barely looks like one. You play poker hands against a blind, then buy jokers that break scoring in combinatorial ways. The session is stakes, shops, and an exponential score.
Who is it for?
For players who want poker hands to break under the jokers they just bought.
- Loop
- Building a deck
- Sessions
- Short sessions
- Progression
- Runs that reset
- Players
- Single-player
- Structure
- Roguelike
- Tone
- Deadpan · Challenging
Game DNA
What playing it feels like, out of 100. Our reading, separate from Steam reviews.
- Build depth92
- Progression35
Estimate
- Social18
Estimate
Key Steam facts
Steam store figures, checked 13 Sept 2026.
2024-02-20
Checked 17 Aug 2026.
Steam positive percent.
Checked 13 Sept 2026.
Checked 13 Sept 2026.
How many people play Balatro?
Estimates from public Steam data, not figures from the studio. Ranges, not exact numbers.
Steam reviews × 25 to 55.
Copies × current price × 50–80% (sales, regional prices). Before Steam's cut, refunds and tax.
Most people playing at the same moment, per SteamCharts.
Peak that month: 10,017.
Half of 300 recent reviewers played 14.4–94.3 h. 2% under 2 h.
Players over time
Where the players are
Languages of the last 300 Steam reviews. A proxy for regions, not a country split.
- English61%
- Spanish (Spain)12%
- Simplified Chinese6%
- Russian4%
- Portuguese (Brazil)4%
- German2%
Balatro players also play
Games played for more than an hour in 39 public Steam libraries of recent reviewers. Each one is played by at least 4 of these players and is more common here than across all libraries we read (× how much).
- Hades44% · ×3.9
- Vampire Survivors33% · ×4
- Slay the Spire33% · ×3.9
- Brotato23% · ×4.7
- Slime Rancher26% · ×3.9
- Hollow Knight36% · ×2.6
- The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth33% · ×2.7
- ULTRAKILL23% · ×3.8
- Inscryption21% · ×4.4
- DAVE THE DIVER21% · ×4.2
Steam data checked 4 Oct 2026
What makes it different?
The fiction is almost absent; the fantasy is watching a scoring engine explode. Balatro's identity is the spreadsheet you feel in your hands.
Core mechanics
How it scores
The fantasy: Optimization and Mastery. Our scores out of 100, separate from Steam reviews.
Jokers rewrite the rules of a hand in combinatorial ways.
Similar games
Full games-like page →
Related games
Nearby games. Not always a direct substitute.
Genre / subgenre
Subgenres: Poker roguelike.
Steam genre: roguelike deckbuilder.
Related rankings
Balatro — launch intelligence
An anonymous developer, a poker deck-builder, and a demo strategy executed to perfection over eight months. 208,000 wishlists on launch day, 1 million sales in under a month.
Store price checked 13 Sept 2026.
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