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Balatro hits 3.5m copies sold

Balatro hits 3.5m copies sold

Indie card smash hit Balatro has sold over three-and-a-half million copies. 

The news was announced on Twitter by the game's official Twitter account, which revealed the milestone while also joking about the title's humble origins from its creator LocalThunk. 

"LocalThunk: Just gonna make a game for myself and a few friends," the developer posted. 

Speaking to GQ, however, LocalThunk admitted that he does somewhat regret how successful the game has become. The developer said that he might be happier had he not released Balatro. 

"Don't get me wrong - this has changed my life in a lot of amazing ways," LocalThunk said. 

"I'm so grateful. But I do miss that time before. It was just a hobby that recharged my batteries. Sometimes I think, 'Maybe I would've been happier if I had never released this game to the public.'" 

They continued: "This last year has been by far the most stressful year of my life," LocalThunk said. "These days I try and think about, what will get me back to where I was when I was making this - when it was relaxing as a hobby. I want to return there."

In March of this year – about a month after its release – Balatro had sold over one million copies. 


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.