Rogue-like poker hit Balatro sells half a million copies in ten days

Developer LocalThunk’s Balatro might have hit a bit of a bump last week after an unexpected ratings change, but that hasn’t stopped the acclaimed poker-inspired rogue-like deckbuilder from selling over half a million copies in ten days, according to publisher Playstack.

That’s an impressive figure for what’s a fairly unassuming card game at first glance. Balatro, if you’re unfamiliar, challenges players to progress through a series of stage-like Blinds by exceeding each one’s target score. A maximum of four poker hands can played each blind, and failure to reach the target, in classic rogue-like fashion, results in a game over.

As you can probably guess, though, there’s a lot more to it than that, with successful Blinds rewarding in-game money to spend on the likes of fancy combo-boosting cards, exotic upgrades, and, crucially, a heap of rule-bending Jokers that quickly turn a relatively unremarkable set-up into an outlandish game of ludicrous, score-busting synergies.