The wonderful Balatro's rise to stardom has been fascinating to see. Relatively obscure until close to launch, the indie, poker-based roguelike quickly ballooned in popularity, becoming publisher Playstack's fastest-selling title in just a few days. Now, 10 days after release on PC and consoles, the game has reached a new milestone of 500,000 copies sold.

Playstack made the announcement earlier today on social media:

The game was developed almost entirely by one person, who goes by LocalThunk. In addition to the sales success, Balatro has enjoyed overwhelmingly positive critical acclaim — including two 9/10 assessments from Push Square and Pure Xbox, and a whopping 10/10 from Nintendo Life. It's safe to say we're all riding the Balatro train here at Hookshot.

The game has hit the half a million mark in spite of recent upheaval surrounding a change in its European age classification. The incident caused it to be removed from certain console marketplaces, where it's yet to make a return, but it should be back on sale fairly soon.

If you're curious to see what all the fuss is about, Balatro is currently part of PS Plus Premium's Game Trial scheme. Members can download and play the game for one full hour at no extra cost.

[source x.com]