The Banana Game is not a scam claim from creators as it reaches number 2 on Steam

A banana-clicking game has become a hit on Steam, but the history behind one of its developers has raised alarm bells.

Certain 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 with that when thousands of people do nothing more than click on 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 things are still going well in terms of player numbers. At the time of writing, it is the second most played game on Steam, after Counter-Strike 2, with a peak of 862,508 players over 24 hours.

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

According to the store listing, when playing Banana, players will receive banana items “every three and eighteen hours.” This has since created a whole banana market, and while the majority are sold for just a few cents, some, like the Diamond Banana, are sold for $80 (£63).

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

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

“As you have all heard by now, Theselion was involved in a ‘bitcoin’ scam/bug on the Steam market,” the statement reads.

“We didn’t know about this until recent videos started to make this clear and we almost immediately spoke to the entire team about the situation. We have given 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 are “no scams” at Banana, and the team plans to expand the title beyond its current state.

“We can’t 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 and are still working on a host of updates to improve the game and let you all do a lot more with your bananas.”

Banana’s rising player count 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 counts recorded earlier this month being real.

While it’s unclear if it’s still a problem – and the number of real players has likely increased as a result of the notoriety – a significant portion may still consist of bots trying to collect free items.

One team member, Hery, also acknowledged the main reason behind the title’s rising popularity. “I really believe the reason it caught on in particular is because it’s a legal ‘infinite money glitch,'” they told the outlet. “Users make money from a free game while selling free virtual items.”

While it seems more harmless than other games accused of being scams because it is free to download, the bigger question might be why people decide to spend so many hours playing such a repetitive ‘game’.

However, clicker games, also known as idle games, have become an entire subgenre, with the best-known example being Cookie Clicker from 2013.

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