Balatro has sold 2 million copies, free 'major gameplay update' coming next year

(Image credit: LocalThunk)

There have been a few small hints that people like poker roguelike Balatro. Our Balatro review score of 91, for instance, the 40,000 Steam reviews that average out to "Overwhelmingly Positive," and the fact that I put 30 hours into it in a single week—and that was when I was playing the pre-launch demo, not even the full game.

Another tiny clue that Balatro is, y'know, pretty good surfaced this week: it's now sold over 2 million copies on all platforms. That's outstanding for a game that's been for the most part the work of a single developer, LocalThunk.

“I would never have thought that Balatro would be played by over 2 million people when I started working on it almost 3 years ago," LocalThunk said in an email sent to PC Gamer. "I’m so grateful to all the players for giving it a chance and I’m excited to show everyone the next chapter for my game.”

Wait, there's the next chapter? Yes, there is. LocalThunk is gonna put more Balatro in Balatro.

"Playstack is thrilled to announce that developer LocalThunk will release a major gameplay update for Balatro in 2025," said Balatro's publisher. "This update will bring new ideas and strategies to the game and will be released across all platforms. And as a token of huge appreciation to the game’s brilliant and passionate community, the update will be completely free."

It's unfortunate how vague that statement is, but I guess it's not against type for the developer of a poker-inspired game to play its cards close to the vest. Hopefully we'll get some more information on the update soon.

There will be two more announcements from Balatro in the next couple of months, currently represented by two face-down cards on its official Twitter profile that will be turned over some time in August and September. As for what those announcements might be, some members of the community are hoping for a mobile version, and others suspect it might be some sort of physical deck of cards for collectors.

I personally hope one of the announcements is that a Balatro movie is being made, and it's called Balatrounders: a sequel to Rounders where John Malkovich reprises his role as Teddy KGB and yells things like "In my club I play de Perkeo Joker ven-ever de fuck I pleess!"

Failing that, maybe just some Teddy KGB sounds effects could be added to the game? Whenever I have a gold card in my hand at the end of the round, he could say "Pay heem. Pay day-at ma-yin hees munn-ay."

This isn't the only Balatro news we've had recently. Just yesterday LocalThunk revealed he hated the idea of "Balatro becoming a true gambling game" so much that when he created his will he "stipulated that the Balatro IP may never be sold or licensed" for use by a gambling company or casino.

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.