Banana Game Sees Sharp Decline in Steam Player Count

After reaching its peak in June 2024, Banana on Steam has experienced a noticeable decrease in concurrent players. Delve into the reasons behind its initial popularity and the subsequent decline in player engagement.

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, reaching an all-time peak of 917,272 players in June 2024. However, it has yet to reclaim those heights. SteamDB data reveals a significant drop 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 the mold of conventional gaming. Its gameplay is straightforward: click a banana image repeatedly. Yet, the game's appeal stems from the potential financial gains it offers. Players can acquire virtual banana items and sell them on the Steam Community Market, with some rare items reaching high prices. For instance, a "Special Golden Banana" was sold for $1,378.58.

The game's rapid rise can be attributed to its promise of earning Steam Wallet funds with minimal effort. Hery, the game's developer, referred to it as a "legal 'Infinite money glitch'" in a June 2024 interview with Polygon. This allure attracted not only genuine players but also automated bots designed to farm valuable drops, artificially inflating player counts.

"Unfortunately, we are currently facing some problems around botting, since the game takes basically 1% to no resources of your PC," Hery explained to Polygon. "People are abusing up to 1,000 alternative accounts in order to get Rarer drops or at least drops in bulk."

To combat this issue, the developers introduced bot prevention measures in May 2024. Despite these efforts, the authenticity of the game's over 100,000 players remains uncertain. Post-peak, the concurrent player count saw a sharp decline, dropping to an average of 549,091 by July 2024. The downward trend continued, with November 2024 witnessing a significant drop from 400,000 to just above 100,000 players. Although there was a brief surge at the start of 2025, the game has struggled to recover its former glory.

Currently, Banana maintains a solid base of 112,966 concurrent players and ranks 7th on Steam's Most Played Games list. However, a sudden dip to around 50,000 players occurred on March 16th, 2025, between 17:00 and 23:00 UTC. The cause of this drop is unclear, and the role of bots remains uncertain. Nonetheless, the overall trend of decreasing player counts suggests the game's initial novelty is fading.

The developers have been proactive, releasing regular updates including trading cards, event drops, and quality-of-life improvements. They've also engaged the community by incorporating user-generated banana art through the Steam Workshop, with creators earning a percentage of sales. Whether these efforts will help Banana regain its peak without bot assistance is yet to be seen.