In a new Twitter post today, developer Playstack Games announced that Balatro has officially sold 500,000 copies in 10 days across all platforms.
Balatro is a new indie sensation that cleverly twists familiar poker-inspired gameplay and cards. Although it is a roguelike deck builder, Balatro undoubtedly revitalized the genre. It has inventive cards, ranging from over 150 unpredictable Jokers to Tarot card variants.
The game launched late last month to rave reviews from critics and audiences alike. It is currently a “Metacritic Must-Play” and has “Overwhelmingly Positive” reviews on Steam.
Balatro did not muster the same unprecedented levels of Palworld, which sold over 1 million copies in around 8 hours after launch. Most recently, Palworld even surpassed 25 million players in just a month since release.
But it took Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth a full week to reach 1 million copies sold. Balatro is performing incredibly well for an indie game, especially with poker mechanics that are under fire.
Last week, the PEGI ratings board in Europe reclassified Balatro to 18+, which ultimately delisted the game.
Playstack Games later issued an official reply regarding this major setback. The developer explained that PEGI’s move was based on gambling imagery and related issues.
However, Playstack stated that it “does not allow or encourage gambling”. So, hopefully Balatro will be restored to the missing storefronts. Playstack added that it is “working as hard as [it] can to get the game back on sale”.
With those additional markets, Balatro could potentially perform even better. It’s unclear how much this hiccup affected copies sold thus far. But the game is still on track to continue thriving in available storefronts.
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