Solo dev behind roguelike hit Balatro expected to sell “maybe 10 copies” and go back to their IT job - but they went on to sell one million copies instead

“So grateful I get to do what I love as a career now”

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Balatro, the poker-themed twist on the roguelike deckbuilder that’s become one of 2024’s many unexpected indie sensations,has sold one million copies. But its solo developer thought he’d be lucky to shift a tiny fraction of that figure, and was expecting to go back to his previous career.

In a recent tweet, developer Localthunk said that “one year ago I was preparing to publish my weird little game on Steam and look for an IT job again.” That ‘weird little game’ was Balatro, and next month will mark a year since Localthunk published its Steam page. From that point on, they say they were “expecting to sell maybe 10 copies.”

One year ago I was preparing to publish my weird little game on Steam and look for an IT job again. I made the store page live in May and was expecting to sell maybe 10 copiesIt’s been a crazy year. So grateful I get to do what I love as a career nowApril 27, 2024

Clearly, that ended up not quite being the case. Balatro released towards the end of February, and just ten days later had hit the 500,000 sales mark. Less than a month after launch, it had hit the one million mark, and it currently sits at nearly 30,000 ‘overwhelmingly positive’ reviews on Steam.

That’s far more than Localthunk thought they’d achieve. Their expectation - of a tiny trickle of sales - meant that they were preparing to “look for an IT job again” after the game shipped. Now, however, that’s not the case. After what they describe as “a crazy year,” they say they’re “so grateful I get to do what I love as a career now.”

This kind of situation doesn’t come along all that often, but when it does it’s hugely gratifying to see - Localthunk will have given cuts of their Balatro revenue to digital storefronts like Steam, and publisher Playstack, but even a small slice of the profit from those million sales is likely to add up to an awful lot of money. Of course, for every runaway success story there are plenty of devs who aren’t as fortunate as this, but every so often, a Balatro or aManor Lordscomes along to grant their creator almost overnight success.

After selling 1 million copies, Balatro creator admits it’s “held together with hopes and dreams” as game devs rally around the roguelike’s beautifully nightmarish code.

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I’m GamesRadar’s news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I’ve run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam’s latest indie hit.

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