Banana is a game where you repeatedly click on a banana, and that's about it. If that sounds dull, it is: I downloaded Banana and clicked the banana for a while, and that's pretty much all there is to do.
But boy, is Banana popular. Since its launch in April, the free-to-play clicker has been steadily racking up massive player counts.
And I do mean massive. As of today, Banana has a peak concurrent player count of 858,915, which is up from 100,000 just over a week ago. Not only is that a huge explosion in players, that makes it the second most played game on Steam. No kidding. Only Counter-Strike 2 drew more Steam players than the game where you click a banana today.
That's not all. Banana is also threatening to usurp one of the most beloved and popular games of the past year: Baldur's Gate 3. Larian's D&D dating simulator has been camping in a cozy spot on Steam's list of the most played games of all time, with a peak concurrent player count of 875,343. That's only about 16,000 more players than Banana drew today.
So, well, yeah. BG3 is almost certainly gonna get kicked off Steam's top 10 all-timer list by a friggin' banana, and it's probably going to happen soon. Like, tomorrow soon. Well, like my grandfather told me on his deathbed, "There's no shame in being beaten by a banana." Now I finally know what he was talking about.
And as you may have guessed: yes, despite my earlier dismissiveness, there is indeed more to Banana than just clicking on a banana. If you click long enough (and are pure of heart) eventually another banana will appear, which you can then trade or sell on the Steam market.
The real carrot in Banana is that very occasionally a rare and more expensive banana will drop, which will make all your clicking worthwhile. I think. I haven't clicked long or hard enough to find out, but maybe I will once Banana has become even more popular than CS2.
