Get all your news in one place.

100's of premium titles.
One app.

Get all your news in one place.

100's of premium titles. One news app.

FORGOTTEN HISTORY: Balatro org - Caught on Camera

Balatro publisher Playstack only discovered it because they had a guy checking all the new releases on Steam every day: 'I saw the game the day it went up on Steam'

"I went to Twitter at the time and contacted LocalThunk. I think he had maybe two or three followers."

PC Gamer

Balatro publisher Playstack could soon belong to the same private equity firm that owns Fandom and GameSpot

Playstack CEO Harvey Elliott says "for now, it's business as usual."

PC Gamer

Balatro's mind-bending code uses mouse jitter for random number generation, along with a bunch of clever maths I'm too dense to fully appreciate

Bear with me, I'm going out on a limb here.

PC Gamer

From analysis to the latest developments in health,
read the most diverse news in one place.

"I didn't expect them to have the same impact as Final Fantasy 16": Clair Obscur Expedition 33's Ben Starr thought "being an idiot with Balatro" would be his biggest role of 2025, not Sandfall's surprise-hit RPG

His calendar was all indie games

GamesRadar

Analysts say Slay the Spire 2 is the best-performing deckbuilder of all time—and the competition isn't close

Slay the Spire 2 has been averaging over a million users per day since launch.

PC Gamer

Balatro's legacy has spawned yet another time-devouring roguelike, and I'm starting to think I've irrevocably ruined Steam Next Fest for myself

Even Raccoin's adorable mascot won't make me grant it forgiveness

GamesRadar

Bingo Betty is the new Balatro-like to top my Steam Library with its wacky items and mesmerising Mega Bingo chains

And that's a bingo.

PC Gamer

Read news from The Economist, FT, and more,
with one subscription

Balatro meets Scrabble in this new roguelike from the creators of TimeSplitters—and I'm just thrilled to finally find a word game that lets me score with swear words

Beyond Words finds the perfect balance between synergy and spelling.

PC Gamer

To celebrate 2 years of Balatro, creator LocalThunk reflected on dropping out of an engineering program to make games: 'Even if I could warn myself I’m not sure what I could have said to prepare for the insanity'

"Thank you to everyone for allowing this terrible student to keep staying up too late."

PC Gamer

Balatro's long-awaited 1.1 update is still in the works, LocalThunk says: "Last night I stayed up until the early hours of the morning"

The roguelike's "major gameplay" update is still coming

GamesRadar

After dodging Slay the Spire 2 by moving forward a whole month, Balatro-inspired roguelike launches into 1.0 and goes straight onto Steam's new and trending chart

Omelet You Cook is causing a stir

GamesRadar

Celebrate Lunar New Year with these Xbox Game Pass options

Catch up on some recent hits.

PC Gamer

I spent 2025 digging through all the word game roguelikes flooding Steam to see if any could capture Balatro’s magic—here are the highly scientific results

Sweet spell of success?

PC Gamer

"This award can f*** itself": Clair Obscur Expedition 33 Verso actor would rather give up Best Supporting Performer than go without "the thrill of that sweet, sweet banana" Joker in Balatro

Give Ben Starr the banana

GamesRadar

Get all your
news in one place.

100's of premium titles.
One news app.

GamesRadar

Steam expert hails PC gaming "golden age" of rough-but-fun games that devs can make quickly and players love, from Peak to Megabonk: "Steam players want fun first"

Lethal Company, RV There Yet, Slots & Daggers, Cloverpit, the list goes on

Windows Central

Vampire Survivors drops a bucketload of new content with a Balatro collab and an "expansion within an expansion" — and it's not over yet

Vampire Survivors just added Balatro content, online co-op, a bunch of new levels and expanded the Castlevania expansion

PC Gamer

The bouncing DVD logo screensaver is a Balatro now

A destiny fulfilled.

PC Gamer

Ball-bouncing, city-building, off-the-wall roguelike Ball X Pit is a huge hit, selling 300,000 copies in just its first five days on sale

With a peak concurrent player count of nearly 35,000.

Get all your
news in one place.

100's of premium titles.
One news app.

GamesRadar

Balatro but with dice has me hooked, Dice A Million keeps me rolling in this Steam Next Fest demo

Dice A Million replaces cards with bizarre dice, challenging me to reach progressively higher rolls

GamesRadar

After dodging Silksong, this Balatro-style slot machine roguelike smashed even my highest expectations by shipping 100,000 copies in a single day

CloverPit is dangerously addictive

Destructoid

Step aside, Balatro—the new king of addictive gambling roguelikes is here

Helloooooooo!

GamesRadar

Balatro creator says "I'm slow" and "I am sorry" and update 1.1 is not coming this year for good reason: "The prospect of rushing the work and going back into crunch mode to get it out this year just felt terrible"

Balatro update 1.1 is now on the timeline of "it's done when it's done"

PC Gamer

How well do you know Balatro's jokers? Try to ace our latest quiz!

Ante up! Let's see if you're a true card sharp or just a flop.

PC Gamer

John Romero says indies are the future of game development: 'These people are the ones that make triple-A studios go, 'Wait a minute, we need to start doing this''

Finding funding for those indies is another matter.

GamesRadar

It's Balatro all over again: a $5 plinko roguelike from a new solo dev is one of the top-rated Steam releases of 2025, and 10,000 reviews agree looking like a pre-installed Windows XP game is a plus

Nubby's Number Factory boasts an "Overwhelmingly Positive" rating

1 2 3 4 5

People

From analysis to the latest developments in health,
read the most diverse news in one place.

Organisations

Read news from The Economist, FT, and more,
with one subscription

Topics

Gold

25,130 stories

Fourteen days free

Download the app

One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.