After reaching an all-time high in June 2024, the popular clicker game Banana on Steam has experienced a noticeable decline in its concurrent player count. This article delves into the game's rise to fame and the factors contributing to its waning popularity.
Banana Game Steam Charts Show Massive Decline
It’s a Clicker Game About Bananas…
Banana launched on Steam on April 23, 2024, and quickly captured the attention of gamers worldwide. This seemingly simple clicker game reached an impressive peak of 917,272 concurrent players in June 2024. However, the game has struggled to maintain these numbers, showing a significant decline from November 2024 to the present.
For those new to Banana, it's a free-to-play clicker game that challenges traditional gaming norms. The gameplay is minimalistic, requiring players to repeatedly click on a banana image. The real attraction, however, lies in the potential for financial gain. Players can earn virtual banana items, which can be sold on the Steam Community Market. Some rare items have fetched high prices, with a "Special Golden Banana" once sold for $1,378.58.
The game's rapid ascent to fame can be attributed to its unique selling proposition: the chance to earn Steam Wallet funds with minimal effort. Hery, the lead developer, even described Banana as a "legal ‘Infinite money glitch’" in a June 2024 interview with Polygon. However, this surge also attracted bots programmed 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 explained to 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 implemented bot prevention measures in May 2024. Despite these efforts, it's uncertain whether the game's current player base of over 100,000 is entirely genuine. The decline in concurrent players became evident post-peak, with an average of 549,091 players in July 2024. This downward trajectory continued, plummeting from 400,000 to just over 100,000 by November 2024. Although the game saw a brief resurgence at the start of 2025, it has not fully recovered from this decline.
Banana currently holds a steady concurrent player count of 112,966 and ranks 7th on Steam's Most Played Games list. However, a sharp drop to around 50,000 players was observed on March 16th between 17:00 and 23:00 UTC. The cause of this sudden dip remains unclear, and it's challenging to determine the involvement of bots. The overall trend of declining player counts likely reflects the diminishing novelty of the game.
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 share of sales. While these efforts aim to rejuvenate interest, it's uncertain whether Banana can reclaim its former glory without the aid of bots.
