Canadian-made Balatro is releasing a wall calendar for 2026 that stars actor Ben Starr as the game’s mascot, Jimbo.
A new year is coming… time to shuffle off and try again!
The Balatro 2026 Wall Calendar is available now: https://t.co/EHlzJDOIIm pic.twitter.com/ugnooDdLoW
— Fangamer (@Fangamer) November 4, 2025
The portraits within the calendar are cleverly designed to reference the various jokers within the game. These portraits include the vampire, the entertainer (referred to as ‘hack’ within the game), the baron, and even playing baseball. Some of the portraits reference cards that don’t even feature Jimbo, such as the cover photo showing Jimbo lying across bananas (a reference to the Gros Michel card), and the portrait of Jimbo eating ice cream, which references the creatively named ice cream card.
This is not the first time Starr has played the beloved mascot, as he dressed up as Jimbo to promote the game and to accept a BAFTA for the game’s developer, LocalThunk. Starr has a wide variety of credits in the gaming industry, including Warframe, Warframe: 1999, Final Fantasy XVI, Dead Take, Date Everything!, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
The goofy but awesome calendar is going for a good cause, as LocalThunk and Balatro publisher PlayStack are donating all profits from the calendar to Extra Life and SpecialEffect.
Extra Life, founded in 2008 as a part of the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, is a program that supports local children’s hospitals through gamers on charity livestreams. So far, Extra Life has raised over US$132 million. Special Effect, based in Oxfordshire, UK, is a charity that focuses on making video games accessible to people with physical disabilities.
The Balatro calendar is priced at US$19, or roughly C$26. It is currently out of stock, though the website notes a restock is planned.
Source: Engadget
