Banana Game Experiences Significant Decline in Steam's Concurrent Player Count
After reaching its peak in June 2024, the game Banana on Steam has seen a notable decrease in its concurrent player numbers. Launched on April 23, 2024, this clicker game quickly gained traction and achieved an all-time peak of 917,272 players. However, since then, the game has struggled to maintain those heights, with a significant decline observed from November 2024 to the present day.
Banana Game: A Unique Clicker Experience
Banana is a free-to-play clicker game that defies traditional gaming norms. Its gameplay is minimalistic, focusing on players clicking a banana image repeatedly. The real draw, however, is the potential for financial gain. Players can acquire virtual banana items and sell them on the Steam Community Market, with rare items like the "Special Golden Banana" fetching high prices, such as $1,378.58.
The game's meteoric rise was fueled by the allure of earning Steam Wallet funds with minimal effort. Developer Hery described it as a "legal ‘Infinite money glitch’" in a June 2024 interview with Polygon. However, this popularity also attracted bots designed to farm valuable drops, artificially inflating player counts.
"Unfortunately, we are currently facing some problems around botting, since the game takes basically 1% to no resources of your PC," Hery told Polygon. "People are abusing up to 1,000 alternative accounts in order to get Rarer drops or at least drops in bulk."
In response, the developers introduced bot prevention measures in May 2024. Despite this, the authenticity of the game's current 100,000+ players remains uncertain. Post-peak, the concurrent player count saw a sharp decline, dropping to an average of 549,091 players by July 2024. This downward trend continued, with November 2024 witnessing a significant drop from 400,000 to just above 100,000 players. Although the game briefly doubled its player count at the start of 2025, it has not rebounded to its former glory.
Banana currently maintains a solid base of 112,966 concurrent players and ranks 7th on Steam's Most Played Games list. However, a sudden dip to around 50,000 players was observed on March 16th between 17:00 and 23:00 UTC. The cause of this dip remains unclear, and it's challenging to ascertain whether bots played a role. The general trend of declining player counts suggests that the game's initial novelty may be waning.
The developers have been proactive, regularly updating Banana with trading cards, event drops, and quality-of-life enhancements. They've also engaged the community by allowing user-generated banana art through the Steam Workshop, with creators earning a percentage of sales. However, whether these efforts will help the game regain its peak without the aid of bots remains to be seen.
