Balatro was one of the biggest success stories of 2024, earning countless award nominations, and selling more than 5 million copies. The game’s level of success was completely unexpected, but no one was more surprised than developer LocalThunk. In a newly published blog post, the developer revealed a timeline leading up to the game’s release, in which he shared some new details about the days before Balatro became a success. Interestingly enough, LocalThunk says he was expecting “average ratings of 6 or 7” since “this was a pretty weird game.” However, when review embargo ended, PC Gamer awarded Balatro a 91, and other outlets had equally positive things to say.
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“More ratings pour in, and by the time the day is done we are sitting above 90 on both Metacritic and OpenCritic. I wasn’t even thinking that this was a possibility, but it sure did build a ton of hype for launch day. I don’t think I would have rated Balatro higher than an 8 and I made the damn thing,” writes LocalThunk.
LocalThunk credits Playstack for a lot of the game’s success, as the publisher “did a truly exceptional job getting this game in the hands of traditional media to write their reviews before launch.” Positive word of mouth from reviewers helped to generate a lot of interest in Balatro, and the launch ended up being “10-20 times larger than we were anticipating.” On Steam alone, the game managed to sell 119,000 copies on launch day. LocalThunk calls it “the most surreal day of my life.”
It’s often hard to predict how a game will sell. Sometimes a game launches to rave reviews and fails to generate much interest; the video game industry has seen countless examples of “weird” games that were critically praised but failed to find an audience. For whatever reason, Balatro managed to break through, and the game’s success should inspire a lot of indie developers willing to take a chance on their dream. LocalThunk assumed that Balatro would just appeal to “a few of my friends and yet somehow all these strangers chose to buy it.” Now there’s Balatro merchandise, and even collaborations with long-running properties like Assassin’s Creed.
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It’s been just over a year since Balatro‘s release, and it will be interesting to see how the game continues to attract new players. Last month, Balatro was released on Xbox Game Pass, and that should help to get a lot more people to check out the game that might not have otherwise. Between the early positive reviews, and all of the awards Balatro won at the end of last year, it seems likely we’ll see the audience continue to grow for quite some time. Balatro has clearly exceeded LocalThunk’s expectations, but it doesn’t seem like the game is finished finding new players just yet.
Do you think Balatro deserved its strong reviews? Did the game’s popularity come as a surprise to you? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!
