Yesterday, developer LocalThunk and publisher Playstack released Balatro for Steam, PS5, PS4, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch worldwide. It is one of my favorite games in a long time. The poker roguelike has been my obsession for about a week now and I’m literally listening to the soundtrack I bought on Steam while writing this article. If you missed my review of the Switch version, I scored it 5/5. Read it here. I played Balatro on both Switch and Steam Deck, and while I played it on my monitor and TV, I ended up enjoying it a lot more in handheld with touch controls. Balatro feels like it would be a perfect fit for mobile, so I decided to look into whether it was mentioned. In the official Balatro Discord server, LocalThunk mentioned that they have a mobile version on their phone for testing, and a mobile version of the game is on the cards, it just wouldn’t be ready for launch. This is good news because I look forward to buying it again on mobile. Watch the Balatro PC and console launch trailer below:

Right now, Balatro is available for $14.99 with some discounts at specific storefronts on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. Right now, I’d recommend playing it on Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch if you have the options because it just feels so good with touch controls in handheld mode. I hope we get an official release window and confirmation for a mobile port at some point this year. A lot of folks have been asking for a mobile port on Twitter and Discord, and I’m certain it would do well given how it has exploded on Steam. There was a generous Steam demo for the game before launch, but it has been removed now. I recommend buying it as soon as possible if you enjoy poker, deckbuilders, and roguelikes. Did you try the demo or buy Balatro on PC or consoles?