Banana Game Sees Sharp Decline in Steam Player Numbers

After reaching its peak in June 2024, Banana on Steam has experienced a notable decline in concurrent players. This article delves into the reasons behind its initial surge in popularity and the subsequent drop in player numbers.

Banana Game Steam Charts Show Massive Decline

It's a Clicker Game About Bananas...

Banana on Steam, launched on April 23, 2024, is a free-to-play clicker game that defies conventional gaming norms with its simplistic yet captivating concept. The gameplay is straightforward—players click a banana image repeatedly. Despite its minimalistic approach, the game soared to prominence, reaching an all-time peak of 917,272 players in June 2024. However, it has not managed to replicate these numbers since, with SteamDB reporting a significant decline from November 2024 onwards.

The allure of Banana lies not in its gameplay but in the potential financial rewards. Players can acquire 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 its promise of earning Steam Wallet funds with minimal effort. Developer Hery described it as a "legal 'Infinite money glitch'" in a June 2024 interview with Polygon. This attracted a large player base, but also led to an influx of automated bots farming 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 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. While it's unclear how many of the 100,000+ players are genuine, the game's concurrent player count saw a sharp decline post-peak. By July 2024, the average number of players dropped to 549,091, and this downward trend continued, with November 2024 witnessing a significant drop from 400,000 to just above 100,000. Although the game saw a temporary increase at the start of 2025, it has struggled to recover from this decline.

As of now, 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, 2025, between 17:00 and 23:00 UTC. The cause of this drop remains unclear, and it's uncertain whether bots played a role. The overall trend suggests that the game's initial novelty may be waning.

The developers have been proactive, regularly updating the game with 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. Yet, it remains to be seen if these efforts can help the game regain its former glory without the influence of bots.