After hitting its peak in June 2024, the Steam game Banana has seen a notable drop in its number of concurrent players. Learn more about its initial popularity and the reasons behind this decline.
Banana Game Sees Substantial Player Count Drop on Steam
A Clicker Game Focused on Bananas…
Banana launched on Steam on April 23, 2024. This deceptively simple clicker game quickly rose to fame, reaching an all-time high of 917,272 concurrent players in June 2024. However, the game has not matched those numbers since. Data from SteamDB indicates a major decline starting in November 2024 that continues to the present.
For the uninitiated, Banana is a free clicker game that breaks from traditional gameplay. Released in April 2024, the game is intentionally minimalistic. The core mechanic involves repeatedly clicking on an image of a banana. Its appeal, however, stems not from gameplay but from potential financial gain. Players collect virtual banana items that can be sold on the Steam Community Market, with rare items commanding high prices. One "Special Golden Banana," for example, sold for $1,378.58.
Several factors contributed to the game's rapid rise. Initially, the prospect of earning Steam Wallet funds with little effort attracted many players. In a June 2024 interview with Polygon, team developer Hery even referred to the game as a "legal 'infinite money glitch.'" This popularity, however, also led to an influx of automated bots designed to farm valuable drops, which artificially boosted the player count.
"Unfortunately, we are currently facing some problems related to botting, since the game uses almost no system resources," Hery told Polygon. "Individuals are exploiting up to 1,000 alternate accounts to obtain rarer items or accumulate drops in large quantities."
The developers introduced anti-bot measures in May 2024. It remains uncertain how many of the current 100,000+ players are real. Following its peak, the game's concurrent player count fell sharply. By July 2024, the average player count had dropped to 549,091. This downward trend persisted in the following months, with November 2024 seeing a dramatic fall from 400,000 to just over 100,000 players. Although player numbers briefly doubled at the start of 2025, the game has not recovered from the overall decline.
Banana currently maintains a strong presence with 112,966 concurrent players, ranking 7th on Steam's list of most-played games. However, a significant drop to approximately 50,000 players occurred on March 16th between 17:00 and 23:00 UTC. The cause of this sudden decrease is unknown, and it's unclear if bots played a role. The general decline is likely due to the game's initial novelty wearing off.
The developers have consistently updated the game, adding trading cards, event drops, and quality-of-life improvements. They also foster community involvement by allowing user-generated banana art via the Steam Workshop, with creators earning a share of sales. Despite these efforts, it seems unlikely the game will regain its peak popularity without the artificial inflation from bots.
