After reaching its peak in June 2024, the Banana game on Steam has seen a significant decline in concurrent players. This article delves into the game's rise to fame and the subsequent drop in its player base.
Banana Game Steam Charts Show Massive Decline
It's a Clicker Game About Bananas...
Launched on April 23, 2024, Banana on Steam quickly gained a massive following, reaching an all-time peak of 917,272 players in June 2024. However, the game has not been able to replicate those numbers since. Data from SteamDB indicates a substantial decline from November 2024 to the present.
For those new to the game, Banana is a free-to-play clicker game that defies traditional gaming norms. Its gameplay is minimalistic, centered around clicking on a banana image repeatedly. The real attraction, though, is the potential for financial gains. Players can collect virtual banana items and sell them on the Steam Community Market, where rare items have fetched high prices. A notable example is the "Special Golden Banana," which sold for $1,378.58.
The game's meteoric rise can be attributed to the allure of earning Steam Wallet funds with minimal effort. In an interview with Polygon in June 2024, developer Hery described the game as a "legal 'Infinite money glitch.'" However, this popularity also drew in automated bots aiming to farm valuable drops, artificially inflating the player count.
"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 implemented bot prevention measures in May 2024. Despite these efforts, it's unclear how many of the game's over 100,000 players are genuine. The concurrent player count saw a sharp decline post-peak, dropping to an average of 549,091 players by July 2024. This downward trend continued, with November 2024 seeing 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 fully recovered from this decline.
Banana currently maintains a strong presence with 112,966 concurrent players and ranks 7th on Steam's Most Played Games list. However, a sudden drop to around 50,000 players was observed on March 16th, 2025, between 17:00 and 23:00 UTC. The cause of this dip is unclear, and it's challenging to ascertain whether bots were involved. The overall trend of decreasing player counts suggests that the game's initial novelty may be waning.
The developers have been proactive, regularly updating the game with trading cards, event drops, and quality-of-life improvements. They've also engaged the community by integrating user-generated banana art through the Steam Workshop, allowing creators to earn a share of sales. However, it remains uncertain whether these efforts will help Banana regain its former glory without bot assistance.
