A new wave of premium mobile games is quietly reshaping the App Store and Google Play, and Balatro - the poker-themed roguelite from solo developer LocalThunk, published by Playstack - sits at the center of it.
According to exclusive data compiled by mobile analytics firm AppMagic for GamesIndustry.biz, the total number of premium game releases on mobile increased by 77% in 2025, with just under 750 premium titles hitting iOS and Android. That is a striking turnaround for a segment that had been in retreat: the figure is still a fraction of the free-to-play segment, which accounted for a massive 96% of mobile downloads in 2025.
Balatro Sets the Benchmark
Among mobile ports, Balatro was the primary driver of growth - the game has now made $21.3 million in total revenue on mobile, with more than 3.1 million downloads - contributing to a 44.6% year-on-year increase in mobile port revenue in 2025 and a download increase of 38.3%.
The game, which first released for PC in February 2024, received its mobile release in September 2024 and is one of the indie success stories of the year, having won the Indie Game of the Year award at The Game Awards in December 2024. Being a premium game available for an upfront payment, Balatro's mobile revenue has come entirely from players purchasing the game - there are no in-app purchases and no ads. Developer LocalThunk has been clear on this point: LocalThunk confirmed that Balatro on mobile will never feature "predatory monetisation" or in-game ads.
Even when Balatro is excluded from the analysis, the data still shows a clear positive trend in port revenue, indicating that growth is not driven by a single title alone.
Other Premium Ports Pulling Weight
Balatro is not the only premium port making a mark. The AppMagic data identifies several other PC-to-mobile successes:
| Game | Mobile Revenue |
|---|---|
| Balatro | $21.3m |
| Slay the Spire | $13.7m |
| Human Fall Flat | $7.8m |
| Dead Cells | $6.5m |
| Ultimate Custom Night | $5.3m |
Other big winners in the premium mobile port space include Slay the Spire (total estimated lifetime revenue: $13.1 million), Human Fall Flat ($7.8 million), Dead Cells ($6.5 million), and Ultimate Custom Night ($5.3 million).
The pattern that emerges from the data is that games with a strong PC reception tend to translate well to mobile, while higher-budget triple-A ports have struggled to replicate that performance.
A Trend or a Spike?
The current uptick is encouraging, but history urges caution. The premium segment has surged before: the source report notes that back in 2022, over 1,000 premium titles launched on mobile, only for that number to collapse to just 422 releases in 2024 before the 2025 rebound. Whether this latest wave holds depends on whether more studios treat mobile as a genuine additional platform rather than an afterthought.
According to AppMagic, the sector is dominated by original premium titles and simultaneous cross-platform launches, with ports of existing games making up just 3% of all premium game releases. However, the number of ports of PC and console titles increased last year - up from just 7 in 2024 to 23 in 2025 - and revenue in this sector is growing.
The data suggests that porting titles to mobile could be a useful opportunity for PC and console developers, with the potential for an additional revenue stream - and there are signs that more studios are taking advantage of this opportunity.
Subscription platforms like Apple Arcade also play a supporting role: Balatro is available on Apple Arcade, meaning some players have access to the game through the subscription service rather than paying for a download directly.
For deal-hunters and PC players who already own Balatro, the mobile version makes a compelling companion platform - no extra monetisation, just a clean port. Check current PC key prices below.
Buy Balatro
Live deal tracker
Balatro is currently available on PC from CA$4.12 - a single purchase that unlocks the same complete experience across platforms, with zero microtransactions.
