"Banana Game Sees Sharp Decline in Steam Player Numbers"

After reaching its peak in June 2024, Banana on Steam has since experienced a decrease in concurrent players. Dive in to explore the reasons behind its rise and fall in popularity.

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 as a unique clicker game, achieving an all-time peak of 917,272 players in June 2024. However, the game has not been able to replicate these numbers since. 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 conventional gaming norms. The gameplay is simple: players click on a banana image repeatedly. The real attraction, however, is the potential for financial gain. Players can earn virtual banana items and sell them on the Steam Community Market, with rare items like the "Special Golden Banana" fetching high prices, once sold for $1,378.58.

The game's rapid 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 surge in popularity attracted 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."

The developers introduced bot prevention measures in May 2024, yet 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, dropping to an average of 549,091 by July 2024. This downward trend continued, with November 2024 witnessing a significant drop from 400,000 to just above 100,000. Despite a brief surge at the start of 2025, the game has not recovered from this decline.

Currently, Banana holds steady with 112,966 concurrent players and ranks 7th on Steam's Most Played Games list. However, a notable drop to around 50,000 players occurred on March 16th, 2025, between 17:00 and 23:00 UTC. The cause of this sudden dip is unclear, and it's challenging to ascertain the involvement of bots. The overall trend of decreasing player counts likely stems from the game's initial novelty wearing off.

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