Banana Game Sees Sharp Decline in Steam Player Count

After reaching its peak in June 2024, the game Banana on Steam has experienced a noticeable decline in its concurrent player count. This article delves into the reasons behind 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 sensation in the gaming world. This free-to-play clicker game, which involves simply clicking on a banana image repeatedly, reached an all-time peak of 917,272 players in June 2024. However, the game has not been able to maintain these numbers, with a significant decline observed from November 2024 to the present, as reported by SteamDB.

The game's appeal lies not in its gameplay but in the potential for financial gain. Players can earn virtual banana items, which can be sold on the Steam Community Market. Some rare items, like the "Special Golden Banana," have fetched high prices, with one selling for $1,378.58.

The initial surge in Banana's popularity was driven by 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. However, this popularity also 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."

In response, the developers implemented bot prevention measures in May 2024. Despite these efforts, the game's concurrent player count saw a sharp decline post-peak. By July 2024, the average number of players had dropped to 549,091, and this downward trend continued, with November 2024 seeing a significant drop from 400,000 to just above 100,000 players. Although the game saw a brief increase at the start of 2025, it has not been able to recover fully.

Currently, Banana maintains a strong presence with 112,966 concurrent players and ranks 7th on Steam's Most Played Games list. However, a sudden drop to around 50,000 players was observed on March 16th, 2025, between 17:00 and 23:00 UTC. The cause of this dip remains unclear, and it's challenging to ascertain the involvement of bots. The overall 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 have also engaged the community by allowing user-generated banana art through the Steam Workshop, with creators earning a percentage of sales. Despite these efforts, it remains uncertain whether Banana can regain its former glory without the aid of bots.