Banana has taken Steam by storm recently, yesterday knocking Baldur’s Gate 3 out of the top 10 most popular games on Valve’s platform (in terms of peak concurrent players).
In Banana, players click on the image of a banana – or simply leave the software running – to eventually get a banana dropped into their Steam inventory. As we previously reported, these bananas can be sold in Steam’s marketplace, with some going for pennies while others have a much higher asking price.
Since Banana started gaining popularity on Steam, there has been speculation this is all some kind of scam. This concern was exacerbated when it transpired one of the developers behind Banana had previously been involved in a “Steam market ‘bitcoin’ scam/bug”. However, other team members have assured the community the game is not a scam, and more content will be coming soon.
In a message shared on Discord last night, Banana’s CM/Co-Owner aestheticspartan released the following statement: “As you all have heard by now Theselions used to be involved in a steam market ‘bitcoin’ scam/bug. We did not know about this until recent videos started to point this out and we had a talk almost immediately with the whole team about the situation. We gave him the chance to explain the situation to us and we know he is showing remorse and is sorry about what happened in the past.”
Aestheticspartan said the Banana team has “parted ways” with Theselions because of this revelation, adding his “inventory has been cleared of any valuable bananas that could concern and/or worry the community”.
The Banana developer went on to state there is “no scamming/scam” going on, and the remaining members are currently working to update the game. “We cannot wait to turn this game into something bigger and better than just a clicker game,” they wrote. “Please stay on the lookout as we have been and still are working on a large amount of updates to improve the game and let you all do much more with your bananas.”
In an earlier conversation with Polygon, developer team member Hery admitted the game has a bot problem. “Since the game takes basically one percent to no resources of your PC, people are abusing up to 1000 alternative accounts in order to get Rarer drops or at least drops in bulk,” they told the publication. This would not be a surprise, given Banana’s monumental Steam numbers.
However, at the time of their conversation, they assured Polygon everything was above board. “I do believe that the reason why it mostly caught on is because it’s a legal ‘Infinite money glitch,'” Hery said. “Users make money out of a free game while selling free virtual items.”
Eurogamer has reached out to members of Banana’s team and Valve for further comment on the current discourse surrounding the game.