Steam's latest sensation is a game about clicking bananas
Steam's latest sensation is an idle clicker game simply titled Banana. Despite its straightforward premise of repeatedly clicking on a banana, the game has rapidly climbed to the number three spot on Steam, boasting over 400,000 concurrent players. The game's unique appeal lies in the potential for a banana sticker to drop into a player's Steam inventory with each click.
Unique stickers fuel marketplace
The stickers obtained in the Banana game come in a variety of designs, including silver-encrusted variants and glitching ones. These unique stickers can be sold on the Steam Marketplace, with some rare stickers fetching up to $1,400 (around ₹1.16 lakh). However, the average selling price for these virtual items is around $0.02 (roughly ₹17). The game's developers have likened this feature to a "legal infinite money glitch," where players can profit from selling these free virtual items.
Banana game's virtual stickers function like NFTs
The funds generated from selling these stickers are credited to a player's Steam wallet, and can be used to buy other games on the platform. The stickers function similarly to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), but without the blockchain technology. Additionally, the game's developers give players the option to purchase inventory bananas outright at $0.25 (₹21) each. Despite allegations suggesting otherwise, the developers insist that Banana is not a scam or Ponzi scheme but simply "pretty much a stupid game."
Future updates for the game
The game's developers have hinted at future updates, that may include using inventory items to change the look of the in-game banana and possibly introducing a mini-game. They also mentioned a potential shop upgrade that would allow gamers to exchange multiples of the same banana for unique drops. Given its massive popularity, it's expected that Banana will inspire many similar games in the future.
