Balatro sold another 1.5 million units in last month, crossing 5 million in less than year

Balatro is a rare case of a single-player game that continues to steadily grow its audience without major content updates or DLCs. Here’s some new data on LocalThunk’s deck-building roguelike.

During the first day of the Pocket Gamer Connects London conference on January 20, Playstack CEO revealed that Balatro has now sold 5 million units globally across. The game is available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and mobile, but it is still unclear how the figures are split between platforms.

“To achieve it less than a year from launch, with a game made by a solo developer is even more special,” Elliott said, also thanking developer LocalThunk and the Playstack team for making it all possible.

Balatro crossed the 3.5 million mark on December 11, meaning it took the game just over a month to sell another 1.5 million copies.

Launched globally on February 20, 2024, Balatro recouped its costs and reached profitability within the first hour of sale. It continued to perform well throughout the year, accelerating after taking home three awards at The Game Awards 2024.

Last month, Balatro also broke its CCU record, as waves of new players flocked to the game during the holiday season. On January 5, it reached a new all-time high of 43,905 concurrent players on Steam.

In September, LocalThunk and Playstack also released Balatro on iOS and Android. According to AppMagic, the mobile version has already generated over $9.3 million in net revenue (reduced by platform fees and taxes). The US accounts for 49% of the total, followed by the UK (7%), Canada (6%), and Germany (4%).

Balatro was recently nominated for five DICE Awards, including Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, and Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game.