Sometimes you just don’t have to, can’t or don’t want to understand it, but things happen. Like a stupid click game called Banana, which is currently one of the most played titles on Steam.
884,469 players. That is currently the number of simultaneous players who have played Banana. Doesn’t that sound like a lot? That is more players than Baldur’s Gate III ever had at the same time. Banana is currently in 9th place among the most played games of all time.
And yes, the concept is dumber than a meter of dirt road. You keep clicking on a banana in the hope that a skin will drop that you can sell on the Steam marketplace. The fact that Banana is free shouldn’t be a hindrance either. The skins sell for prices ranging from a few cents to several hundred dollars, for whatever reason.
It sounds like a scam at first, especially since one of the alleged team members of the developer (let’s call it that) is said to have been involved in a Bitcoin scam on the Steam marketplace. However, the developers insist that everything is above board and that they have separated from the developer in question.
In a message shared on Discord last night, Bananas CM/Co-Owner aestheticspartan made the following statement: “As you’ve all heard by now, Theselions was involved in a Steam Market ‘Bitcoin’ scam. We were unaware of this until recent videos pointed it out and we immediately communicated with the entire team about the situation. We gave him the opportunity to explain the situation to us and we know he is remorseful and sorry for what happened in the past.”
They then decided to go their separate ways with Theselions. In return, they want to continue working on Banana and add new features to the “game”. To what extent the player numbers are actually accurate is a completely different matter. Apparently, countless click bots and alternative accounts are being used to farm the rarer drops. How long Valve will continue to look at this remains to be seen.
