Game news This 97% rated game that no one has ever heard of made a million dollars in a few hours
There are games like that, which are gargantuanly successful when no one really expected them. Balatro can boast of being in this category, having proven to be profitable… in one hour. An hour, yes.
Maps, roguelike and fame
The world of video games is sometimes unforgiving. While thousands of employees are experiencing layoffs, studios are closing and developers are trying in vain to break through by releasing many games, others arrive at the right place, at the right time and win the day: This is the case of LocalThunk, a solo developer who released Balatro a few days ago (February 20, to be exact).
Balatro mixes several successful genres: it is both a poker game and a roguelike. Based on deckbuildingyou can make illegal poker combinations, opt for incongruous jokers, make saving combos and, overall, it is a very good, rather refreshing experience. It’s sold for 13.99 euros on Steam, but is also available on PS5, Xbox and Nintendo Switch… and it’s an absolute hit.
Such successes are rare and Balatro’s is insolent, especially from a proportional point of view: eight hours after its release, the title had already exceeded one million dollars in revenue. An hour after arriving, the break-even point was already reached : now, a number of streamers are taking advantage of it, boosting the notoriety of the software. Moreover, on Steam, we can still see an average evaluation of 97% from players (for almost 10,000 reviews!); on Metacritic, it is 90%.
A surprise for everyone
Obviously, the first surprises are those behind the game. There is LocalThunk of course, but also Playstack, the publisher, whose biggest commercial success in eight years of existence.
“We are stunned by the success of Balatro. All publishing partnerships are to some extent a leap of faith and the dramatic industry news of the past twelve months has added to the toll. So we understand that this is a rare privilege that Balatro achieved game profitability within an hour of release. I can’t congratulate LocalThunk and the Playstack publishing team enough for achieving such an impressive milestone.” – Harvey Elliott, CEO of Playstack. “
For his part, LocalThunk also made his little statement full of emotion:
I’ve poured my heart and soul into this game in hopes of sharing it with a few friends and loved ones, but seeing so many people sharing and enjoying this strange creation is incredibly overwhelming.
We can only send them our congratulations!
Buy Balatro at -10% on Steam via Gamesplanet
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