Steam is being overrun by a Cookie Clicker-type game centering around a Banana. This game has players buy and sell digital items for thousands of dollars despite doing nothing but farming digital items.
The objective behind Banana is fairly monotonous. The whole premise is to leave the game in the background on your computer to see what special banana you may be able to obtain.
Those familiar with Counter-Strike’s skin market will understand how much people are willing to pay for exclusive items, and Banana is no different.
Multiple banana types are seen in the game, most of which are based on memes like the Sad Hamster from TikTok. You would expect others to have different rarities, like golden or shiny.
Despite the game’s primarily mundane premise, the attraction of potentially getting one of the rare bananas draws players in. Banana is currently one of the most-played games on Steam, with over 800,000 concurrent players and dozens of rare bananas on the market.
The prices of these bananas range based on rarity, similar to how CSGO skins are bought and sold from loot crates. Some of the most expensive bananas sell for upwards of $1,000, with others ranging from $100 to $900.
But what value do these bananas serve? Realistically, there are none, aside from being able to say that you’re the proud owner of a $1000 banana that may only have one or two others like it.
The mixture of the aspect of NFTs and gambling sparked a conversation within the Steam community, which resulted in some members wanting to ban the category of these AFK games altogether.
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Banana is not the only game that uses the concept of selling rare items gained by leaving the game in the background. There are three other versions, or spinoffs, of the original Banana game, one featuring a cucumber and banana, an egg, and a bunch of cats.
At the time of writing, Cats has jumped from around 3,000 concurrent players to over 40,000 in less than 24 hours, with some of the items in that game selling for hundreds of dollars as well.
This trend isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
“If people didn’t buy cosmetic bananas, then this wouldn’t be a problem. Feels like NFTs all over again,” said one commenter.
But there is no simple solution for getting rid of these games, as, as one person outlined, there is a lot of money to be gained from the situation from a business standpoint.
“The real winners are the developers and Valve. Valve takes a percentage of each transaction. If people are so moronic that they buy virtual bananas for hundreds of dollars, then God help them,” said another.
Despite their nature, these games remain one of the most popular on the platform. However, the gambling aspect could bring more criticism and an eventual takedown, as the post suggests.