Banana game is not scam claim creators as it hits number 2 on Steam-Adam Starkey-Entertainment – Metro

People, and bots, are going bananas over Banana (Steam)

A game where you endlessly click a banana has become a hit on Steam, but the history behind one of the developers has raised some alarm bells.

Certain parties like to argue 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 entertainment.

Earlier this month, a game called Banana shot up the charts on Steam. A few weeks later and it’s still riding high in terms of player numbers. At the time of writing it’s 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 drive behind the player surge is the banana drops. When you play games on Steam, you sometimes unlock items in your Steam inventory, which can be sold via the marketplace for wallet currency, and that’s what’s driving a lot of interest in the game.

When playing Banana, players receive banana items ‘every three and 18 hours’, according to the store listing. This has since spurred a whole banana market, and while the majority sell for mere pennies some, like the Diamond Banana, are being sold for $80 (£63).

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

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

‘As you all have heard by now, Theselions used to be involved in a Steam market ‘bit coin’ scam/bug,’ the statement reads.

‘We did not know about this until recent videos started to point this out and we had a talk almost immediately with the whole team about the situation. We gave him the chance to explain the situation to us and we know he is showing remorse and is sorry about what happened in the past.’

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

‘We cannot wait to turn this game into something bigger and better than just a clicker game,’ the team added. ‘Please stay on the lookout as we have been and still are working on a large amount of updates to improve the game and let you all do much more with your bananas.’

Banana’s soaring player count might not be what it seems. In an interview with Polygon, the developers said there’s a problem with bots, with only a third of the 141,000 player numbers recorded earlier this month being real.

While it’s unclear if it’s still an issue – and the number of real players has probably gone up due to the exposure – a significant portion could still be bots, trying to grind out free items.

One team member, Hery, also acknowledged the main reason behind the title’s rising popularity. ‘I do believe that the reason why it mostly caught on is because it’s a legal ‘infinite money glitch’,’ they told the outlet. ‘Users make money out of a free game while selling free virtual items.’

While it seems more harmless than other games which have been accused of being a scam, since it is free to download, the bigger question might be why people are deciding to invest so many hours playing such a repetitive ‘game’.

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

There’s a bit more to Cookie Clicker (Playsaurus)

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