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 concurrent players. This article delves into the game's popularity and the factors contributing to its decline.

Banana Game Steam Charts Show Massive Decline

It’s a Clicker Game About Bananas…

Launched on April 23, 2024, Banana on Steam quickly rose to fame, achieving an all-time peak of 917,272 players in June 2024. However, the game has not been able to reclaim those heights. According to SteamDB, there has been a significant decline in player numbers from November 2024 to the present.

For those new to the game, Banana is a free-to-play clicker game that breaks from traditional gaming norms. Its gameplay is straightforward: players click on a banana image repeatedly. The game's appeal, though, is not in its mechanics but in its potential for financial gain. Players can earn virtual banana items, which they can then sell on the Steam Community Market. Remarkably, rare items like the "Special Golden Banana" have sold for as much as $1,378.58.

The game's rapid rise to popularity can be attributed to several key factors. Initially, the prospect of earning Steam Wallet funds with minimal effort attracted many players. In an interview with Polygon in June 2024, game developer Hery described Banana as a "legal 'Infinite money glitch.'" This allure, however, also drew automated bots designed 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 this, it's unclear how many of the game's 100,000+ players are genuine. Post-peak, the game's concurrent player count saw a sharp decline. By July 2024, the average number of players dropped to 549,091, and this downward trend continued through the subsequent months. November 2024 saw a significant drop from 400,000 to just above 100,000 players. Despite a temporary increase at the start of 2025, the game has not rebounded from this decline.

Currently, Banana maintains a strong presence with 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 drop remains unclear, and it's challenging to ascertain the involvement of bots. Nonetheless, the overall trend suggests a waning of the game's initial novelty.

The developers have been proactive in updating the game, introducing trading cards, event drops, and quality-of-life improvements. They've also engaged the community by allowing user-generated banana art through the Steam Workshop, with creators earning a share of sales. Whether these efforts will help Banana regain its former glory without bot assistance remains to be seen.