Poker Brawl vs Balatro
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Poker Brawl
Engage in competitive, turn-based poker matches against other players. Improve your rating with each win and climb the leaderboards. This game focuses on skill and strategy, not real money betting.
- Head-to-head poker matches
- Turn-based gameplay
- Rating-based competition
- Leaderboard rankings
- Free-to-play
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Go head-to-head against other players to compete for the best rating! Play when it's convenient for you with correspondence-style turn-based gameplay. Poker Brawl features real competitive free-to-play heads-up poker. As you battle against other players, your rating goes up or down based on your results. The best players will make it to the top of the leaderboards. Are you one of them? NOTE: This game does not offer any possibility of betting or winning real money. It is purely meant for the enjoyment of the competitive aspect of poker. No in-app purchases will influence your ability or chance at winning this game.
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.
- Poker and Solitaire hybrid gameplay
- Rule-bending mechanics
- Collect over 150 unique Joker cards
- Create powerful combos
- Campaign and challenge modes
- Pixel art visuals
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Poker Brawl at Free against Balatro's $9.99. Balatro's advantage is ratings volume (109K vs 35) and chart position (#2 vs unranked). On rating, review sentiment, update cadence and ads 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
Poker Brawl is free to download; Balatro costs $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Poker Brawl against 5.0 for Balatro. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Balatro has 109K ratings behind it against 35, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 87% of Poker Brawl's written reviews are positive against 81% of Balatro's.
Poker Brawl ships an update weekly, Balatro every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Poker Brawl | Balatro |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $9.99 |
| Rating | 4.9 (35 ratings) | 5.0 (109K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 86.7% of reviews — better | 81.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 35 | 109K — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 8 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | — | #2 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 54 MB | 94 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Poker Brawl, LLC | Playstack Ltd |
Customer experience
Poker Brawl
Balatro
Bugs and requests
Poker Brawl
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
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
Poker Brawl
No in-app purchases
Balatro
No in-app purchases
