Balatro vs Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era
Roguelike deckbuilder poker vs. turn-based strategy revival — one plays in short bursts, the other in long campaigns.
Definitive deck-building poker roguelike that holds up past 100 hours, with free Friends of Jimbo updates adding new collab card packs.
Olden Era nails the hex-grid tactics and faction progression that die-hard fans crave — skip if you hated the originals.
Steam popularity
Shared scale — sparklines are directly comparable across both games.
Balatro
May 2026 peak CCU 11,550 ↑ 0% MoM
All-time peak 43,825
Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era
May 2026 peak CCU 60,562
Key differences
Game loop
Each run is a 15-minute deckbuilding puzzle built around poker hands and joker synergies.
Each map is a multi-hour tactical campaign with town building, army movement, and combat.
Strategy depth
Success depends on reading card probabilities and scaling joker combos per run.
Victory requires resource management, unit upgrades, and tactical positioning on grid-based maps.
Content format
Infinite Endless mode plus stake difficulty climbs provide hundreds of hours of single-player.
Campaign missions and multiplayer, but currently early-access with AI bugs and balance issues.
Which one is for you?
Pick Balatro if
- You want a quick session game you can pause anytime.
- You loved Slay the Spire or Monster Train.
- You enjoy building scaling synergies from poker hands.
Pick Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era if
- You crave classic turn-based strategy like Heroes 3.
- You have patience for early-access bugs and AI quirks.
- You prefer deep tactical battles over deckbuilding.
Bottom line
For quick, polished roguelike runs, choose Balatro. For long turn-based strategy campaigns, Olden Era is worth it if you can tolerate early-access roughness.