- The game, released in April, has been going viral on Steam
- Hundreds of thousands of people are playing Banana
- Users can make money for doing almost nothing
Why is a game on Steam where you just click on a banana going viral? There is a very good reason that is bringing players back to it repeatedly.
Clicker game
According to the Steam store, Banana is described thusly: “Banana is a clicker Game, in which you click a Banana! In Banana you click the Banana to gain even more Bananas! Every 3 and 18 hours you get dropped a banana. Each banana is also made by the community in discord.”
While this may not sound particularly thrill-a-minute – especially as that is the game, on screen you have a banana on a green background and you just click it as many times you want/can and every so often a new one drops – the numbers on the game are increasing. Last week, more than 140,000 users were clicking on a banana at the same time, according to SteamDB – although some of those were bots – and the numbers are still increasing.
Banana value
So what is the reason for its popularity? Well, each banana has a value and some are worth more than others. Also, every banana goes into a user’s Steam inventory, and these can be sold on Steam Marketplace. If someone buys it, the money goes into the user’s Steam Wallet and can be used to buy other stuff – so users can make money for doing almost nothing. The developers of the game also take a small percentage of every marketplace sale too, its worth noting.
While most bananas are worth just cents – some of the rarer ones can go for big money. For instance, a Crypticnana – of which only 25 exist – recently sold for $514. The most prized banana is the Special Golden Banana, which has changed hands for more than $1,000.
While some on Steam forums have queried the game’s legitimacy, those behind it maintain that it is just a game where you click a banana.
