Banana Game Sees Sharp Decline in Steam Player Numbers

After reaching its peak in June 2024, the game Banana on Steam has experienced a notable decline in concurrent players. Let's delve into the factors contributing to its initial surge in popularity and the subsequent drop in player engagement.

Banana Game Steam Charts Show Massive Decline

It’s a Clicker Game About Bananas…

Banana on Steam, launched on April 23, 2024, quickly became a phenomenon in the gaming world. This seemingly simple clicker game reached an all-time peak of 917,272 players in June 2024. However, since then, it has struggled to regain those heights, with a significant decline observed from November 2024 onwards, according to data from SteamDB.

For those new to the game, Banana is a free-to-play clicker game that defies traditional gaming norms. Its gameplay is minimalistic, requiring players to click on a banana image repeatedly. Yet, the real attraction lies in the potential for financial gain. Players can collect virtual banana items and sell them on the Steam Community Market, with rare items like the "Special Golden Banana" fetching prices as high as $1,378.58.

The game's meteoric rise can be attributed to the allure of earning Steam Wallet funds with minimal effort. Developer Hery described the game as a "legal 'Infinite money glitch,'" in a June 2024 interview with Polygon. This appeal attracted a vast number of players, but it also drew in 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 these efforts, it remains unclear how many of the game's 100,000+ players are genuine. Post-peak, the game saw a sharp decline in concurrent players. By July 2024, the average number of players had dropped to 549,091, and this downward trend continued, with November 2024 witnessing a drop from 400,000 to just above 100,000. Although there was a momentary doubling of player count at the start of 2025, the game has not rebounded to its previous highs.

Currently, Banana maintains a solid base with 112,966 concurrent players and ranks 7th on Steam's Most Played Games list. However, a significant 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 ascertain if bots played a role. The general trend of decreasing player counts suggests that the game's initial novelty may be wearing off.

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 percentage of sales. However, it remains doubtful whether these updates will help Banana regain its peak without the influence of bots.