Cpvr Posted November 26 Share Posted November 26 Roguelike indie card game Balatro has generated almost $4.4 million in gross mobile revenue two months after its release on the App Store and Google Play. A poker-inspired card builder, Balatro was first released on PC and console this February before expanding to mobile on September 26th, where it proceeded to make $1 million in its first weekaccording to AppMagic. Now, following a spending surge last week, LocalThunk’s debut game has overturned a six-week decline and suddenly surpassed the $4 million mark. The premium model Being a premium game available for an upfront $9.99 payment, Balatro’s near $4.4 million on mobile has come entirely from players purchasing the game to begin with. There are no in-app purchases and no ads, making revenue reliant on reaching potential new players and earning their installs. As a result, Balatro’s mobile earnings peaked early as eager players paid the upfront fee and have had nothing more to spend on since. The title made $162,000 on launch day and peaked at almost $200,000 on September 29th. A sharp decline began on October 3rd, down 33.5% from the day prior to $118,000. Spending - and therefore downloads - continued to fall throughout the month and averaged out at $71,000 per day. LocalThunk confirmed that Balatro on mobile will never feature "predatory monetisation" or in-game ads either, so this declining revenue had no clear path to turning around without attracting an increasing number of new players. However, revenue began to climb again on November 18th, and daily revenue has been back to six figures since the 22nd, which necessarily means a boost in the number of people downloading Balatro for the first time. In fact, last week ended up being Balatro’s second-most lucrative on mobile to date, earning $727,000. November 18th was also the day Balatro was nominated for five awards at Geoff Keighley’s Game Awards 2024, including Game of the Year and Best Mobile Game. Evidently, its nominations have helped land Balatro in front of new audiences who are curious enough about the title to pay that premium entry point. source: Pocketgamer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killamch89 Posted November 27 Share Posted November 27 To be fair, the best mobile games I've ever played tend to be the ones where I purchased the game upfront for a small amount and no monetization systems unlike the free to play games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
