Banana game is not the maker of cheating claims as it hits number 2 on Steam

Some parties like to argue that video games are a waste of time and shouldn’t be considered art, and sometimes it’s hard to argue against that when thousands of people are doing nothing but clicking a picture of a banana for fun.

Earlier this month, a game called Banana climbed the charts on Steam. A few weeks later and it’s still high in terms of player count. At the time of writing, it is the second most played game on Steam, behind only Counter-Strike 2, with a 24-hour peak of 862,508 players.

In Banana, players click an image of a banana and … that’s it. The main direction behind player growth is banana drops. When you play games on Steam, you sometimes unlock items in your Steam inventory that can be sold through the marketplace for wallet currency, and that’s what drives a lot of interest in the game.

When playing Bananas, players receive banana items “every three and 18 hours,” according to the store listing. This has since fueled a whole banana market, and while most sell for mere pennies, some, like the diamond banana, sell for $80 (£63).

As you might expect, a game entirely dependent on selling item points has raised some eyebrows over whether it could be a scam. This speculation was added after it was revealed that one of the developers was previously involved in a ‘Steam market bitcoin scam/bug’.

In a statement to Discord (via Eurogamer ), Banana co-developer Aestheticspartan has announced that he has parted ways with the team member, known as Theselions, following discussions about his past projects.

“As you’ve all heard by now, Theselions was once involved in a Steam market bit coin scam/bug,” the statement said.

“We didn’t know about it until the last videos started showing it and we had a conversation almost immediately with the whole team about the situation. We gave him the opportunity to explain the situation to us and we know that he is remorseful and sorry for what happened in the past.’

The developer later claimed that there is ‘no cheating/fraud’ involved in Banana, with the team planning to expand the title beyond its current state.

“We look forward to turning this game into something bigger and better than just a clicker,” the team added. “Please stay tuned as we have been and are still working on a large amount of updates to improve the game and allow you to do much more with your bananas.”

The growing number of Banana players may not be what it seems. In an interview with Polygon, the developers said there is a problem with bots, with only a third of the 141,000 player numbers registered earlier this month.

While it’s unclear if it’s still a problem – and the number of real players has probably increased due to exposure – a significant portion may still be bots, trying to grind for free items.

A member of the team, Hery, also acknowledged the main reason behind the growing popularity of the title. “I believe the reason it caught on the most is because it’s a legal ‘infinite money fallacy,'” they told the media. ‘Users earn money from a free game while selling free virtual items.’

While it seems more innocuous than other games that have been accused of being a scam, since it’s free to download, the bigger question may be why people decide to invest so many hours playing such a repetitive ‘game’.

Clicker games, also known as idle games, have become an entire sub-genre however, with the most famous example being 2013’s Cookie Clicker.