New milestones for 2024 indie hits: Balatro tops 3.5 million copies sold, Buckshot Roulette surpasses 4 million
2024 has been a big year for indie games, with two major releases — Balatro and Buckshot Roulette — recently hitting new sales milestones.
Balatro (left), Buckshot Roulette (right)
On December 11, developer LocalThunk revealed that Balatro has now sold 3.5 million units globally. This means it took the game less than 10 months from its February 20 launch to cross this mark.
The poker deck-building roguelike is available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and mobile, but it is unclear how the figures are split between platforms. Let’s not forget that Balatro is also part of the Apple Arcade subscription, so its total audience is larger.
Below are the key sales milestones for LocalThunk’s game:
- 250k copies — three days after launch;
- 500k copies — 10 days after launch;
- 1 million copies — a month after launch;
- 2 million copies — five months and a half after launch.
According to AppMagic, the mobile version of Balatro has generated over $4.2 million in net revenue (reduced by platform fees and inclusive taxes) since its launch on September 26. The US accounts for 49% of the total, followed by the UK (7.1%), Canada (6.2%), France (4.3%), and Australia (3.4%).
Balatro’s top 10 countries by mobile revenue (via AppMagic)
Buckshot Roulette, a tabletop horror game of chance from indie developer Mike Klubnika, reached 4 million units sold on December 10. In a blog post on Steam, the creator noted that “It feels incredibly sentimental to write another one of these posts,” also thanking players “for taking part in our dance between life and death.”
Originally launched on itch.io in December 2023, Buckshot Roulette arrived on Steam on April 4, 2024. It is unclear whether the sales figures include both versions or just the one sold on Valve’s store, but here are the game’s key milestones:
- 500k copies — April 9;
- 1 million copies (Steam version only) — April 17;
- 2 million copies — July 5.
Klubnika has been actively supporting and expanding Buckshot Roulette since its Steam launch by adding new features and mechanics. The multiplayer mode, released on October 31, caused a surge in player interest, with the game’s peak CCU count surpassing 20k in early November.
