Balatro sold 2 million copies. A'major update' to the gameplay will be available next year.

Balatro is a poker roguelike that has a lot of fans. Our Balatro score of 91 is one example, as are the 40,000 Steam reviews which average out at "Overwhelmingly positive," and that I spent 30 hours playing it in just one week, when I was only playing the pre-launch demonstration, not the full game.

This week, another tiny clue that Balatro, y'know pretty decent, is a hit was revealed: it has now sold more than 2 million copies across all platforms. This is a remarkable feat for a game whose main developer was LocalThunk.

LocalThunk wrote in an email to PC Gamer that he had never imagined that Balatro was played by more than 2 million people. "I'm grateful to all of the players for giving my game a chance, and I'm eager to show everyone the new chapter for my video game."

Is there a next chapter? Yes, there's a next chapter. LocalThunk will put more Balatro into Balatro.

Publisher of Balatro said: "Playstack has been thrilled to announce that LocalThunk, the developer behind Balatro, will release a major update in 2025." This update will introduce new ideas and strategies into the game, and will be released on all platforms. The update will be free as a way to show appreciation for the game's passionate and brilliant community.

The vagueness of that statement is unfortunate, but I suppose it's not unusual for a developer to keep their cards close to their chest when creating a game based on poker. We'll hopefully get more information about the update in the near future.

Balatro will make two more announcements in the next few months. Currently, two cards are displayed face down on its Twitter profile. These will be revealed in August or September. Some members of the community hope for a mobile app, while others think it could be a physical deck of cards.

I hope that one of the announcements will be that a Balatro film is being made. It's called Balatrounders. John Malkovich reprises as Teddy KGB in a sequel to Rounders and yells "In my club, I play de Perkeo Joker ever-ever de fuck!"

If that doesn't work, perhaps some Teddy KGB sound effects could be added to this game? When I have a goldcard in my hand at round's end, he can say "Pay him." Pay day-at ma-yin hees munn-ay."

It's not the first time we've heard about Balatro. LocalThunk revealed yesterday that he was so opposed to the idea that "Balatro would become a true gambling" game that he "stipulated" in his will that the Balatro IP could never be licensed or sold to a gambling company.