Balatro
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 3 roguelike deckbuilders
People recommend Balatro as an addictive, polished roguelite card game that runs well on many systems.
People recommend Balatro as an addictive, polished roguelite card game that runs well on many systems.
33 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 31
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 94%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 31 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 16 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Addictive, fun roguelite card gameplay
“Games like Balatro and Megabonk have broken my previous definition of "fun" in a fantastic way.”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “Valve hikes Steam Deck prices by more than 40%, blaming rising costs” “Balatro and Vampire Survivor are plenty of fun for some people”
Comment from 28 Dec 2025 in “Rainbow Six Siege Hacked as Players Get Billions of Credits and Random Bans” “You never know if you'll hit that Balatro magic.”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Tell HN: Happy New Year” - Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “GTA 6 Physical Copies Won't Include a Disc, Will Just Be a Code in a Box”
- Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “What to Learn to Be a Graphics Programmer”
Polished, high-quality indie game
“The most polished game I've played, Balatro, was built using Lua and Love2D specifically because of the iteration speed that they made possible.”
Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “Cyberscript” “But the Indie world is huge and full of innovation. Balatro, Stardew Valley, Disco Elysium, Slay the Spire, Cuphead, I could go on.”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “Sony Deletes a Bunch More Movies from the Accounts of People Who 'Bought' Them” “Balatro is a great game and the mainstream success is warranted”
Comment from 24 Dec 2025 in “Lua 5.5” - Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “Valve Responds to Developers Fearing AI Slop and Clones”
Runs smoothly on varied hardware
“Getting it to run in KDE was straightforward.”
Comment from 24 Dec 2025 in “Lua 5.5” “Those games run with no difficulties.”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook” Succeeds on quality, not marketing
“you can succeed spectacularly with genuinely good games like Balatro or Slay the Spire”
Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “The game industry is broken – can we fix it?” “There are fun games that succeed without marketing, e.g. Balatro”
Comment from 10 Mar 2026 in “Meta hires duo behind Moltbook”
Other roguelike deckbuilders people recommend
The two most recommended other roguelike deckbuilders, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BalatroThis page | 31 | 2 | 94% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Slay the Spire | 14 | 2 | 88% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Slay the Spire 2 | 9 | 6 | 60% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
26 of the 34 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“There's plenty of quality there too!”
“you can succeed spectacularly with genuinely good games like Balatro or Slay the Spire”
“let me know when in the casinos (authorized) SKILL USE is the most important part”
“It activates almost exactly the same emotions as gambling”
“It can work for simpler concepts like card games, Balatro comes to mind”
“They are making art, not slop. And people love them for it.”
“I like it because of the card synergies”
“The most polished game I've played, Balatro, was built using Lua and Love2D specifically because of the iteration speed that they made possible.”
“But the Indie world is huge and full of innovation. Balatro, Stardew Valley, Disco Elysium, Slay the Spire, Cuphead, I could go on.”
“immersed like I do for Celeste or Bolatro”
“roguelite game with poker cards, very addicting”
“Games like Balatro and Megabonk have broken my previous definition of "fun" in a fantastic way.”
“Those games run with no difficulties.”
“Balatro is so sweet on my 11 Pro and chokes on whatever is in the Mini”
“card-based games like Hearthstone, Monster Train, Balatro”
“I've 100%'d Balatro and wheel of fortune is quite strong.”
“The 8-ball joker is even more BS.”
“There are fun games that succeed without marketing, e.g. Balatro”
“They’re wildly original and not made by old Japanese dudes.”
“I was also similarly obsessed with that game last year”
“You never know if you'll hit that Balatro magic.”
“Balatro and Vampire Survivor are plenty of fun for some people”
“Balatro is a great game and the mainstream success is warranted”
“Getting it to run in KDE was straightforward.”
“It's fascinating to see a commercial game whose source is easily read inside the application bundle”
“Balatro does all three with a couple hundred lines of GLSL shaders.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.