Balatro

Balatro is a 2024 poker-themed roguelike deck-building game developed by solo developer LocalThunk and published by Playstack. It was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on February 20, 2024, with a port to macOS on March 1. Ports for Android and iOS were released on September 26, 2024. A dedicated Nintendo Switch 2 version was released on February 25, 2026. In the game, the player must score points by playing poker hands from a starting 52-card deck, with a limited number of hands and discards each round. Inspired by the card game big two and the roguelike video game Luck Be a Landlord, LocalThunk developed Balatro over two and a half years. Initially, LocalThunk treated it as a side project to put on a résumé, not anticipating its success. Balatro has received universal acclaim from game critics and sold more than 5 million copies by January 2025. Along with several other awards and nominations, it was named Game of the Year at the 25th Game Developers Choice Awards and nominated for the top prize at The Game Awards 2024, the 28th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, and the 21st British Academy Games Awards.