Claim it. If you have PC Game Pass, download Dice a Million right now. It launched yesterday (February 25) as a Day One title and it’s the best free pickup this week — maybe this month.
The short version: it’s Balatro, but with dice. That’s not a criticism. That’s the pitch.
What Is Dice a Million?
Dice a Million is a roguelite deckbuilder from solo developer countlessnights, published by 2 Left Thumbs. Your goal: roll a million points before the facility stops you. You won’t hit a million your first run. Or your fifth. But around run eight, when you’ve built the right combination of dice and passive rings and everything starts multiplying — the numbers go absurd fast. That’s the whole game, and it’s great.
The loop: each turn you roll a hand of dice and hit a score target. Clear the round, earn currency, buy better dice and equip rings from the shop, then face a boss that resets your accumulated score and drops a nasty passive debuff on you. Survive. Repeat.
There are 120+ unique dice — different shapes, pip counts, and effects. Bottle cap dice are worth almost nothing early, but buy them cheap and pair them with the right ring and they’re suddenly generating 500 per pip. The piggy bank die banks pips between rounds. The death star die punishes bad rolls and rewards good ones massively. Learning which dice interact with which rings — and building toward those synergies — is the entire meta.
It’s Balatro With Dice (That’s a Compliment)
Yes, Dice a Million is absolutely a Balatro clone. The architecture — blind score targets, boss encounters, passive joker-style modifiers (rings here instead of jokers), run-based roguelite structure — is lifted directly from LocalThunk’s card game. If you loved Balatro, you already understand how to play this.
The difference is the dice physics. In Balatro, you choose which cards to play. Here, you roll all your dice simultaneously and positioning matters — where dice land on the table changes which bonuses activate. It adds a layer of chaos that cards can’t replicate. You can influence it. You can’t fully control it. That tension between strategy and randomness is what makes each run feel fresh even when you’re running a similar build.
DayOne’s launch-day review summed it up well: “It gets what makes rogue-lites so damned fun to play, with a solid soundtrack and interesting visuals. If you have any level of PC this one is worth a download via Game Pass or buying outright.”
TheXboxHub noted: “It’s the kind of game you boot up just for one run and suddenly realise an hour has passed.”
10 Classes, 80 Rings, 164 Achievements
The replay value argument is easy. Ten playable hands (classes) each come with a different starting dice setup that pushes you toward a different build strategy. The 80 rings are where the actual depth lives — finding which ring combinations multiply into something broken is what turns a 30-minute curiosity into a 4-hour session.
The developer listed 164 Steam achievements, noting there are “hundreds of unlocks and secret achievements.” With a roguelite structure, those unlock organically through repeat play rather than forcing you to check a guide. That’s the right approach — unlocking a new die combination mid-run and realizing it breaks everything is more satisfying than ticking off a list.
There are also multiple paths and endings baked into the randomly generated runs. The game’s description is self-aware about its scope: “Cutting edge next-gen graphics (not really, I drew all of them on paint).” The art is simple. The systems aren’t.
What Does It Cost?
On Steam, Dice a Million normally runs $14.99. There’s a 20% launch discount right now, bringing it to $11.99. For a roguelite this solid, that’s a reasonable buy — two evenings minimum, potentially much more if the genre clicks with you.
On PC Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate: it’s free. Day One. No catch. If you have a subscription, it’s already sitting in your library.
This is PC only right now — no Xbox console version yet. Series X/S subscribers without a PC will have to wait.
If you’re looking at other strong Game Pass picks this month, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 hits Game Pass on March 3 and Planet of Lana 2 arrives March 5 — both day one. February’s been a genuinely strong month for the service.
Verdict: Download It
If Balatro wasn’t your thing — either the poker card theme bored you or the skill ceiling felt punishing — Dice a Million probably won’t convert you. The frustrations map over. You’ll still get wrecked by bosses you didn’t prepare for. You’ll still wonder why the RNG hates you.
If Balatro was your thing and you’ve already put 80 hours into it, this is a straight-up replacement habit. Same satisfying loop, different variable (dice vs. cards), and the physicality of actually rolling adds something Balatro can’t do.
The game only launched yesterday, so there’s no Metacritic score yet. The demo had a Very Positive rating from 200+ Steam players. Early day-one coverage from PC gaming outlets has been positive. At $0 on Game Pass, you’re not betting $15 on a new developer’s first impression — you’re spending zero to try something that might genuinely hook you for the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, February’s full Game Pass lineup also includes Diablo II: Resurrected — check our Diablo II Game Pass review if you want something with more campaign depth.
Game Pass subscribers: it’s already in your library. Go roll some dice.
