Comparison

Roll vs Balatro

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Roll

Engage in a relaxing dice-rolling experience where you aim to collect points by rolling dice and strategically upgrading them. This game blends elements of strategy, clicker, and roguelike deckbuilders for a unique dice-building system with deep strategic choices. Enjoy a meditative escape with its minimalistic design and peaceful atmosphere.

Highlights
  • Dice rolling for points
  • Dice upgrading system
  • Strategy and critical thinking
  • Relaxing and meditative experience
  • Unique dicebuilding synergies
  • Highscore chasing
Features
Read full description

In Roll, you have 2500 rolls to collect as many points as possible. Roll your dice to gain points, spend your points to upgrade your dice, and repeat. Borrowing gameplay elements from strategy, clicker, and roguelike deckbuilder genres, Roll creates a perfect balance of relaxation with critical thinking. While the "Clicker"/"Incremental" genre is not known for its variety or depth of game mechanics, Roll offers a unique dicebuilding system which allows you to explore different strategies and synergies between upgrades. Each run will present you with new and interesting decisions creating a huge depth of strategy and keeping the game feeling always fresh. Roll is designed to be a relaxing and meditative experience. Get lost in the satisfying sounds and effects as all your worries melt away. From the minimalistic UI to the slow peaceful music, everything was designed to create the perfect zen environment. If you enjoy building an engine and watching it grow, chasing down highscores, or just need to escape from your own thoughts, then I really hope you'll enjoy my game, Roll. :)

About

Balatro

This game blends poker and solitaire mechanics with unique rule-bending twists. Build powerful poker hands, discover game-changing Joker cards, and create exciting combos to defeat challenging Boss Blinds. Explore different decks and game modes for endless replayability.

Highlights
  • Poker and Solitaire hybrid gameplay
  • Rule-bending mechanics
  • Collect over 150 unique Joker cards
  • Create powerful combos
  • Campaign and challenge modes
  • Pixel art visuals
Features
Read full description

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.

Screenshots

Roll4 screens
Balatro4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Roll at Free against Balatro's $9.99. Roll also leads on iOS requirement (11.0 vs 13.5). Balatro's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and rating (5.0 vs 4.6). On review sentiment, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Roll is free to download; Balatro costs $9.99 up front. Roll sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Balatro asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Balatro holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Balatro has 105K ratings behind it against 439, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 78% of Roll's written reviews are positive against 81% of Balatro's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Roll ships an update weekly, Balatro every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Roll versus Balatro: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRollBalatro
PriceFree — better$9.99
Rating4.6 (439 ratings)5.0 (105K ratings) — better
Positive reviews78.2% of reviews81.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings439105K — better
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank—#2 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS11.0 — better13.5
Further details — not scored
Size370 MB93 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperJoseph Anthony DistlerPlaystack Ltd

Customer experience

Roll

All ratings439 ratings
Positive89.5%
Neutral2.7%
Negative7.7%
Written reviews119 reviews
Positive78.2%
Neutral8.4%
Negative13.4%

Balatro

All ratings105,357 ratings
Positive99.2%
Neutral0.3%
Negative0.6%
Written reviews1,832 reviews
Positive81.1%
Neutral5.2%
Negative13.7%

User reviews

Roll

From 439 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Easy to play
  • 👍 Addictive gameplay
  • 🔒 No ads or microtransactions
  • 🚀 Smooth performance
  • 👍 Unique and innovative

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Bugs and glitches
  • 👎 Limited free content
  • 👎 Confusing or overwhelming UI
  • 👎 Lack of customization options
  • 👎 Repetitive gameplay

Balatro

From 105K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🎮 Addictive gameplay
  • 💎 Unique and compelling mechanics
  • 👍 Easy to learn, hard to master
  • 🎨 Charming pixel art and music
  • 💰 Great value for money

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Bugs and save issues
  • 🔍 Small text and UI elements
  • 🔋 Battery draining
  • 🔇 No background music support

Bugs and requests

Roll

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Upgrade shop issues
  • Crashes and freezes
  • Swiping/tapping issues
  • Incompatibility with older devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Offline mode
  • More dice skins and customization
  • Sandbox mode with unlimited rolls
  • Improved dice management UI
  • More detailed stats and analytics

Balatro

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Unlocks and achievements not registering properly
  • Crashes and freezes on certain devices
  • Joker and card interactions not working as expected

Requested features

3 requests
  • Cloud save sync across devices
  • Portrait mode option
  • Customizable UI and accessibility settings

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Roll

One-time1
  • Roll Premium$3.99
None

Balatro

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Roll free?
Roll is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Balatro free?
Balatro costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Roll or Balatro?
Balatro is rated higher. Roll averages 4.6 out of 5 from 439 ratings, while Balatro averages 5.0 from 105K ratings.
Do Roll or Balatro have ads?
Neither Roll nor Balatro shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Roll or Balatro?
Roll ships an update weekly, and Balatro every 5 days. Most recently, Roll was updated on September 23, 2026 and Balatro on September 24, 2026.

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