Balatro Continues Its Winning Streak, Receiving Game Of The Year At Game Developers Choice Awards

Balatro was 2024's breakout success story as the deck-building roguelike card game garnered much attention for its fiendish gameplay as players are challenged to change up the standard rules for poker in innovative ways. It shouldn't come as a surprise that the deck-building roguelike card game has amassed critical praise and multiple Game of the Year (GOTY) awards, thus appearing in most publications' end-of-the-year lists for 2025.

Balatro continued its successive run in 2025 with the release of the Friends of Jimbo 4 pack, adding customizable face cards from the popular Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role and several notable games like Assassin's Creed, Civilization 7, Dead by Daylight, and Slay the Princess. Additionally, the game finally made its way to the Xbox Game Pass subscription service for those who have yet to experience this "adrenaline-pumping" game.

Recently, the game was recognized at this year's Game Developers Conference at their annual Choice Awards, which occurred on 19th March 2025. This awards ceremony recognizes and celebrates "the creativity, artistry, and technical genius" of the developers and the games released within the past year, during which LocalThunk's Balatro was honored.

Balatro swept at the Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA), winning in four categories: Best Debut, Best Design, the Innovation Award, and its top honor, Game of the Year, which the latter award was awarded to Larian Studios' Baldur's Gate 3. It could add more silverware to its collection as Balatro is nominated in four categories at this year's BAFTA Games Awards, livestreamed on 8th April 2025.

Other notable winners at the GDCA include Astro Bot winning Best Audio and Best Technology, ATLUS' Metaphor: ReFantazio taking home Best Narrative, Black Myth: Wukong dazzled voters to win Best Visual Art, Life Is Strange: Double Exposure winning the Social Impact Award and the public voted Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth to be awarded with the Audience Award. Lastly, Remedy's Sam Lake was honored with the Lifetime Achievement award at this year's GDCA a few months after receiving the Andrew Yoon Legend Award at the New York Game Awards.