Balatro approaches $1 million in seven days on mobile

• Balatro has generated nearly $1 million across Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store
• The pay-upfront game has made 60% of its revenue from the US

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Roguelike card game Balatro has generated almost $1 million in player spending in its first seven days on Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store.

Since September 26th, the indie title has risen and risen in daily revenue to a current peak on October 2nd, gaining momentum on its fast journey to seven figures.

Across the two stores, this game has generated approximately $937,500, according to AppMagic estimates, and it has done so despite breaking away from the classic free-to-play mobile model.

Instead of in-app purchases, solo developer LocalThunk has opted to trust interested players to spend $9.99 upfront. Players can buy the full game but cannot try it out first.

The result: Balatro is currently Google Play’s top paid card game and Apple’s App Store’s number one strategy game.

Playing a strong hand

Balatro is a cross-platform game that released on PC and consoles back in February. Just over half a year later, LocalThunk’s touch-based interpretation was ready for launch on mobile, giving new and existing fans remastered controls more intuitive for touchscreen devices.

The goal of the game is to build strong poker hands, create card-based combos, find the Jokers and beat the Boss Blinds. Winning a round nets players currency that can be spent on stronger cards for the next battle, and thus the gameplay loop is formed.

And throwing the rulebook out the window, illegal poker hands can be played to make those combos all the more powerful, adding multiplier upon multiplier for the highest scores possible; using every tool available is par for the course in a roguelike.

Evidently, card-game enthusiasts are flocking to Balatro, even as a premium game, overwhelmingly from the US. In its first week on mobile, over $550,000 in gross revenue has come from the States, which is equivalent to 60% of Balatro Mobile’s revenue to date.

Its second-biggest market, the UK, has contributed just $60,000, or 6% of total mobile revenue.

Of course, as a pay-to-play title, that also means the majority of downloads have come from the US, followed by the UK. Canada rounds out the top three.

On its first day on app stores, Balatro generated over $140,000 and made a further $160,000 on day two. After a dip on September 28th – Balatro’s only day to date that generated below $100,000 – the indie game surged on September 29th to almost $200,000.

Moving from strength to strength, yesterday, October 2nd, was the card battler’s most lucrative day yet, earning almost $208,000.

Naturally, every day of spending also means a growing number install base, and that’s without considering the number of players gained – or the money made – from Balatro+, its Apple Arcade iteration.

If this roguelike’s release on other platforms is any indication – reaching profitability within an hour of release according to GamesIndustry.biz – LocalThunk is set to continue raking in the revenue on mobile too, and to reach $1 million on the app stores soon enough.

Despite featuring no actual gambling in-game, the poker theme has earned Balatro some controversy too.