Last updated on January 3rd, 2026 at 12:03 am
Balatro – Strategy Game Review
Balatro is a Strategy/Card game from Playstack Ltd, first launched in 26th September 2024.
It’s rated 12+ and currently has 93,028+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Balatro Stand Out
Welcome to the official Balatro mobile game!
Hypnotic and endlessly satisfying, Balatro is a magical mix of card games like Solitaire and Poker, that lets you twist the rules in ways never seen before!
Your goal is to beat the Boss Blinds by making strong poker hands.
Find new Jokers that change the game and create awesome and exciting combos! Win enough chips to beat tricky bosses, and find hidden bonus hands and decks as you play. You’ll need all the help you can get to beat the big boss, win the final challenge, and win the game.
Features:
- Remastered controls for touch screen devices.
- Each run is different: every pick-up, discard and joker can dramatically alter the course of your run.
- Multiple game items: discover over 150 Jokers, each with special powers. Use them with different decks,upgrade cards and vouchers to boost your scores.
- Different Game modes: Campaign mode and challenge mode for you to play.
- Beautiful Pixel Art: Immerse yourself in the CRT fuzz and enjoy detailed, hand-crafted pixel art.
This Strategy game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Balatro is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 5th June 2025
Recent improvements include:
App store meta data change.
Download & Availability
Balatro is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Hours an hour and hours of time spent on this game. Replayable like none other. Easy to learn, difficult to master. Probably the best money you could spend on a game in the app store.
Seriously we cannot stop playing Balatro and it is becoming a problem. Havent slept for 2 days, please someone put us out of our misery.
We played a bit of Balatro on the pc, which was fun but not really the type of game Id sit down at a keyboard for and just get into. But discovering it on iOS has been a game changer. It might just be the perfect mobile game Addicting, relatively easy to get into, challenging, infinite replayability, and can be picked up and put down at any moment without losing game progress. The philosophy of the creator means the game is the game; no microtransactions or anything of the like. We think there is certainly a learning curve for the game, as well as a limitation on how far you can advance depending on your intelligence or willingness to watch videos on strategy. Im terrible at math, so our ceiling has been relatively low, but it has been enjoyable to learn how to play the game better. For $9 you really cant go wrong with this one.
Lots of fun. Addictive and challenging.
This game is fantastic in every way. Easy to learn, really hard to master. A major time sink, and the runs are super addicting. Must buy, no question. We have the game on PC, but we think this is a better mobile game than PC game.
It is a beautifully crafted game and also, bear with us here, has no ads, and DOESNT REQUIRE WIFI. It sounds too good to be true, but it is.
We have been playing for 2 years now and its still adding and amazing every run feels different and the crazy seeds and stuff you can play with is awesome.
We have 75+ hours on steam deck so we had the fuel this addiction for mobile.
Doesnt take too long to learn and is very addicting.
We first learned about this game through a steam sale and we were hooked. Come to find out there was a mobile version and it was over for our life.
The quality is fantastic for an app, and the difficulty is just perfectly paced enough to really get your money's worth whether you play all the time or just on occasion.
This is the best card game Ive played. The game is different each time depending on which jokers you play. Different strategies for different jokers. So much fun.
Who made even this game ? Very good.
This is a great game. Our only complaint is that completionist++ is completely unrealistic. We doubt anyone is getting this achievement without modding. Please get rid of this achievement.
Theres a reason out of 92k reviews. Every single one of them is 5 stars. Not even the trolls are doing anything against this game. Its just that good.
Balatro is one of the best indi-rouge likes we ever play, beautiful soundtrack engaging gameplay with easy to understand mechanics if you want play a game on the go and pick it up anytime you want Balatro is the best option out of the very limited options available in Apple Store, 10/10 will play that fine shi again.
For someone that never spends money on mobile games, we can say this is definitely worth it. Not only did we 100% this game on PC, we bought it again just so we could play on the go. Made by a solo developer you can tell this guy put some love into this one. Its incredibly addicting and just a great deck builder in a genre filled with so many.
Easily one of the best games on mobile. We only wish you could cloud save your progress so that we could alternate between pc and mobile like Vampire Surviors lets you.
The app runs extremely well. Bought it when we fell in love with playing it elsewhere. The mobile version runs so well Ive put in more hours in this version than all others. Its our go to game to play.
So addicting. Vibey AF. Could listen to the music forever. Overwhelming at first but overall easy to learn.
Sideways Smiley = :+) aka: :+)=:) Sideways glare= >+:+( or ) aka: >:) or >:( #im so trendy#-yours truly, greatbettle(not really our name. Just username.).
This game is probably one of the most addictive games we think we have ever played. Its a simple concept, but it does wonders. We have probably spent hundreds of hours playing this game and now its finally over. Play this game.
Endlessly replayable, hugely addictive and satisfying gameplay, cozy and beautiful artwork, amazing original soundtrack that never gets old. One of the few truly Perfect games ever created.
Best mobile game the worlds seen in along time. Once you learn it its so addicting. We e been playing for 3h without realizing. We recommend.
Game game nick a. It's awesome.
The little joker makes us angry when we lose.
One of the best mobile games ever, for 10$ this game is a steal.
The music, visuals, and gameplay all combine and make a banger of a game. We were having problems after the lastest IOS update but it seemed to just fix itself after a few months oddly enough. Gud game for sure.
If you happen to experience an endless loading cloud save issue. It is not the devs fault. We had to redownload apples games app in order for our cloud saves to load properly.
We love this game it was worth the ten bucks.
We got this game on our Switch and one day later, completely addicted. Its a very calming game though, so its nice to kill time with. We ended up getting another copy on our phone so we can bring it with us.
Ive got over 300 hours on Xbox , we finally bought it for the phone and couldnt be happier.
This is the most fun Ive had with a card game in such a long time, easily super addictive and fun! Only thing we wish they could add would be to optimize the UI for mobile players. We dont mind holding the game sideways, but Id definitely prefer to hold our phone upright when playing a game like this.
We didnt get a no active boss error message when we were about to sell the Luchador after defeating the big blind, and unfortunately it was before the boss blind was active, so we were able to sell it, but the boss blind was not disabled and we got Fish-killed.
Balatro Balatro Balatro Balatro Balatro Balatro Balatro Balatro Balatro Balatro Balatro Balatro.
Balatro is incredibly addicting yet fun and balanced. Cant wait for the new update so every single ante 39 run isnt just baron+mime :-).
Acaso las sacrifice cambiando de region y ahora ya no puedo verlas? En serio fortnite valia mas.
This games really kills alot of time we would recommend it 100%.
This game makes us forget how long Ive been playing because Im having so much fun. This is a top 10 game of all time.
We love the game but sadly every time we win a run our information doesnt save so we cant unlock new decks. Im stuck in our current state until the game eventually allows us to continue. Please help.
This game so good we stopped doing drugs and got addicted to this instead! :D.
Genuinely great. You do not need to like poker to enjoy this game. There are other games like it, but nothing scratches the roguelike itch like Balatro, except maybe Vampire Survivors. Excellent games all around.
We can keep our gambling addiction at bay, it not for long. We love gambling we love the rush. We love balatro. We love gambling we love gambling we love gambling we love gambling we love gambling we love gambling we love gambling we love gambling we love gambling we love gambling we love gambling we love gambling we love gambling we love gambling we love gambling.
We were hesitant to buy this game despite all the talk about it because we figured – how good could a card game actually be? But we were so wrong. This game is addicting. The amount of special cards (jokers, tarot cards etc) that exist in the game is incredible. And they all do something interesting. And the art style is so great. We love finding new Joker cards and see what different designs they come up with. This game really nails that excitement we had as a kid of opening a pack of Pokmon cards to see what youll get. Overall highly recommend. To the Devs – if you happen to read these review: A portrait orientation mode would be amazing. This game is so great for iPhone and we think it would be nice to have that orientation as an option. Thanks.
A simple and straightforward card game that constantly seems to bring enjoyment. Not quite to the level of Slay the Spire in terms of continual depth, but it a consistent form of escape from lifes stressors.
We started playing it on PlayStation and had to play it mobile the controls take a sec to get but 10/10.
Really cool worth the money and yeah.
Took us 10 minutes of playing to quickly realize this game will be a lifelong problem.
This game has changed the way we look at cards and life.
Very addictive Ive played for hours and hours on various platforms. You should buy this game 100% recommend.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.3
- Size: 93.47 MB
- iOS: 13.5 or later
- Languages: NL, EN, FR, DE, ID, IT, JA, KO, PL, PT, RU, ZH, ES, ZH
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Simulated Gambling, Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes, Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes
- Developer: Playstack Ltd
Last updated: 5th June 2025 | Genre: Strategy, Card | Developer: Playstack Ltd