Why Is Everyone Playing The Banana Game And What Is It Anyway?
Users of Steam who pay close attention to the most often played games on the site could have observed a sharp increase in popularity for an unidentified game called Banana, which begs questions about what this new game is. Banana ranks second behind only Counter-Strike 2 at the time of writing with about 850,000 concurrent players. Banana hence now boasts more active players than games like DOTA 2 and PUBG: Battlegrounds.
An interesting question is how precisely a game nobody had ever heard of two months ago suddenly become one of Steam's most popular titles. Once players discover the real nature of the game, their interest only gets stronger. Banana, either purposefully or not, has developed an online environment like to other current social trends, which has made players believe it is not only a game but also a profitable source of revenue.
The Banana Game is only an idle clicking tool with a twist.
Opening Banana will find players facing a dark yellow screen and a picture of the titular fruit. Tracking the amount of times the player has clicked the banana, clicking the banana produces a counter showing above it. And that sums up Banana's whole gaming experience. Unlike with Cookie Clicker, there is no mechanism to grow into automatic clicks, and apparently no objectives underlying increasing the counter.
The occasional drops players will get set Banana apart from simply inputting "+1" on a calculator program and hammering the equals symbol. Banana players will periodically get pictures of a banana uploaded to their Steam inventory. Time determines these declines; click count has nothing bearing on them. Players will get one of these banana images as long as they keep the game open in background and sporadically click the banana. Through the official Discord server of the game, the community helps Banana make all of her banana pictures.
Digital Drops from Bananas Sell for Real Money
The opportunity to make some money rather than the basic gameplay is what really drew gamers to Banana. While some of the rare bananas have sold for over $1,000, Polygon reports that players have been purchasing and selling their random drops, usually for only a few cents. The attraction of this mostly boring game now becomes much more obvious. Many of the hundreds of thousands of people not playing this game are probably just enjoying the novelty of the game; others are probably doing it because they believe they may profit from a free game. Still others just like clicking a banana.
Technically, sure, players have been profite from Banana. This probably doesn't add up to something really significant most of the time. Although some very large sales have occurred, most banana images are not worth even one dollar. Even if gamers receive a rare banana, they have to hope someone will buy it from them, something that is most likely only going to get rarer as players start to grasp something quite crucial about these digital bananas.
Although Banana's Item Drops aren't Worth Anything, Their Sale For Money Is Still Profitable
Though this is only true transaction-to--transaction, an old proverb holds that an item is only value what someone is ready to pay for. Someone bought a digital banana photo for more than a thousand dollars does not guarantee they will be able to sell it for as much. Ultimately, Banana's drops are just digital images of a banana anyone may readily view for free online. There is no guarantee they can be resold since having these images in one's Steam inventory doesn't really have any inherent worth.
With Ubisoft's botched attempt at Nfts and a strange letter from Square Enix's president on the subject in 2022, the perceived value of Banana's image declines initially seems like it would be for other dubious investments like NFTs, which aren't unfamiliar to gaming. Although many have made this analogy, it's crucial to understand that there is quite clear distinction. Banana drops have no connection to blockchains, hence there is no comparable "exclusivity" that would supposedly provide NFTs their value. Banana does not so have the same harmful environmental effect as NFTs either.
Does Banana A Scam exist?
It is crucial to underline that the game is not a fraud even if individuals could lose money on their Banana purchases. Banana is a free game; it provides no guarantees regarding financial success. Though players are free to interact with the secondary marketplace around the game anyway they choose. Players should be warned, as with any collectible, they are running some danger by spending big amounts of money for these banana photos. Banana-related purchases carry more financial risk, hence it does not follow that the game itself has technically done anything improper.
Banana is not exactly a fraud, but players should avoid being trapped in the hype. One member of Banana's development team, Hery, described the game as a "legal infinite money glitch" when trying to explain why it is so well-liked, as Forbes noted. Remember that in actual world a "infinite money glitch" is not conceivable. The money dries out as soon as gamers cease paying for banana drops. Banana's present high player count is probably related to this belief that the game offers a means of income. Insider Gaming also claims that a lot of bots are utilized in attempts to cultivate unusual drops from the game. This reminds us that the list of possible customers for every item is less than the claimed 800,000+ players since real people interacting with the game is fewer. And many of these players most likely aren't prospective customers if everyone is playing Banana in an attempt to earn money.
Future of Banana: Right Now
Banana's popularity begs some issues regarding Steam's future actions on the game. Although Valve is not liable for individuals choosing to spend their money on Banana's drops, the game's inflated stats resulting from bots call into doubt how simple it is for a game to ascend to the top of the charts when so many of its active players are bots. Valve will probably wish to solve this problem so other titles won't start trying to climb the Steam rankings for better visibility using bots.
Banana's future is still yet unknown. The popularity of the game is mostly related to the supposed value of its digital downloads. Still, because these are only digital photographs, the actual worth of these objects is dubious. The value of these drops probably will reduce when the buzz about the game fades. It remains to be seen whether Banana can keep its appeal or if it will just be a passing trend.
Originally used by the firm to offer updates for Valve titles, Steam is a well-known video game distribution tool developed by Valve and published in 2003. Steam started branching out in 2005 to handle outside licenses. Along with browsing games for buy, steam users may submit reviews and upload own material.
