Balatro Holds 98% Steam Rating With 117K Reviews

LocalThunk’s poker roguelike, Balatro, keeps delivering impressive numbers that few indie games can match: it boasts a 98% positive rating from 116,977 Steam reviews, nearly 15 months after its launch on February 20, 2024. At just $14.99, it’s still one of the best deals on any gaming storefront.

The game hit multiple platforms simultaneously, launching on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch, with a mobile version arriving soon after. This day-one multi-platform approach is quite rare for a solo developer. Such wide availability has clearly helped maintain its player base; Steam reports 5,845 concurrent players at the latest check. Most indie titles struggle to keep numbers like that beyond their first month, let alone into their second year.

Balatro simplifies poker hand logic into a scoring engine, then adds jokers, tarots, and planet cards to create huge combo chains. The gameplay loop starts simply but offers enough mathematical depth to provide thousands of hours of emergent strategy. This explains why its review scores have remained high, unlike many other games that see a decline over time.

Publisher PlayStack and developer LocalThunk have chosen to support the game with updates instead of paid expansions. This choice likely bolsters the ongoing positive sentiment reflected in the review scores. A Gaming Age review roundup that covers the PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Switch versions confirms that the cross-platform experience is consistent across all four platforms, with no version falling behind the others.

To put its longevity into perspective, a 98% positive rating with six figures of reviews is a rare feat on Steam. Most titles that start strong usually see their ratings decline as a wider audience arrives. Balatro hasn’t followed that trend.

By The Numbers

Steam Review Score	98% Positive
Total Steam Reviews	116,977
Current Steam Price	$14.99
Current Concurrent Players	5,845
Release Date	February 20, 2024

Community feedback backs up these impressive numbers. One Steam reviewer shared, “At first I played Balatro on my phone for months. After I bought it on Steam I kept playing. During the boring classes or my free times I played Balatro.” This pattern appears frequently across platforms, showing players move between versions instead of quitting the game altogether. This mobile-to-PC conversion trend offers a clear sign of real retention rather than just impulse buys.

What To Watch

• Keep an eye on whether LocalThunk decides to introduce paid DLC or a sequel to capitalize on Balatro’s large audience. So far, the developer has held off, but commercial pressures can be strong at this level.
• Crossplay functionality across the four platforms remains uncertain as we approach 2026. A crossplay guide published in April 2026 indicates that players are eager for cross-platform progression or multiplayer features.
• Watch how long the concurrent player count stays above the 5,000 mark. This number is the best indicator of whether Balatro will shift from a hit to a long-term staple in the catalog.