Balatro Hit Major Sales Milestone Selling 5M Copies, Encourages Players To Play "Amazing" Indie Games

2024 was a huge yet impactful year for the independent video game industry that saw several releases from talented developers and studios find their way to consoles, PCs and mobile devices, catching the attention of players around the world. Some of these indie gaming releases have been heavily featured in multiple Game of the Year lists, including Neva, Animal Well, Pacific Drive, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, and Caravan SandWitch, to name a few.

But perhaps the biggest indie release that took gaming by storm is LocalThunk's poker roguelike game Balatro, and almost a year following its release; it's celebrating a significant milestone. This was recently confirmed on social media when the game's developer imparted encouraging advice to players.

2024 will forever be remembered as the most significant and strongest year for independent game development despite being the most challenging for the gaming industry. It was a breakout year for developer LocalThunk, who broke the ceiling with the poker roguelike game, and now, it also broke sales records.

This was revealed in a social media post on the game's account, which celebrates selling five million copies since its release in February 2024, and hopefully, players are "having an amazing time with it!" It's likely this counts for cumulative sales across platforms, including its mobile release last September, which Apple recognized the poker roguelike game in their App Store Awards for Arcade Game of the Year.

As it thanks the dedicated community for the game's critical successes, which earned itself a few Game Awards last December, it left players with some advice to carry throughout this year. "If this is your first time picking up an indie title, try to make it a habit," the post concluded by informing players that "there's some amazing stuff out there!"