Update 06-19-2024: Banana clicking game Banana has now knocked off smash hit role-playing games Hogwarts Legacy and Baldur’s Gate 3 on Steam’s most popular games of all time list.
The game — which is literally about clicking an image of a banana over and over — now sits in 9th place on Steam’s most popular games list per concurrent players. It’s peak is now 884,469, more than Hogwarts Legacy at 879,308 and Baldur’s Gate 3’s at 875,343.
This also means Banana is creeping up on eighth place New World, which has a peak of 913,634: just 29,165 more peak concurrents than Banana.
Original Story 06-18-2024: Banana clicking game Banana is a certified Steam hit, amassing a colossal 858,915 concurrent players on the platform to become its 11th most popular game of all time.
Data from player tracking website SteamDB shows Banana has overtaken the likes of Apex Legends, Valheim, Terraria, Fallout 4, Helldivers 2, and so many more as it enters the upper echelon of Steam royalty.
“Banana is a clicker game in which you click a banana,” reads its official synopsis. “Get a random banana every three hours and grow your collection.” Banana currently has a ‘Very Positive’ rating on Steam with 88% of players recommending it.
The huge player count puts Banana a tad short of the top 10 list, itself full of true heavyweights. But Baldur’s Gate 3, which holds the 10th spot, has a peak concurrent player count of 875,343 — a mere 16,428 players above Banana.
PUBG: Battlegrounds holds the top spot with an eye-watering 3,257,248 concurrents, Palworld comes next at 2,101,867, and Counter-Strike 2 is third at 1,818,773. Lost Ark, Dota 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, New World, Hogwarts Legacy, and finally Baldur’s Gate 3 all follow, with Banana holding the 11th spot.
Players of Banana launch the game and beginning clicking a banana, as many times as they like, and that’s about it. Its single Achievement is called CLICK and is awarded upon clicking a banana.
Its draw perhaps comes from giving out Steam items, which can be sold for Steam credit or traded. Banana gives out banana skins as its item, and clicking on the game once in a while nets players a couple per day.
Most of these skins are near worthless in terms of real-world money, estimated at fractions of a cent, but some rare ones, like a Sad Hamster Banana or a Shiny Banana, are listed for upwards of $200. The Crypticnana is listed at $1,149. Whether or not they sell for this amount remains to be seen, of course.
While some players may be looking to exploit a simple algorithm of clicking bananas to get rewarded in hard (Steam) cash, it seems many are just trading lesser bananas for fun and getting in on what appears to be somewhat of a joke.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.