I’d like you to try to remember the simplest and most repetitive game you’ve ever played. Okay, now get ready to relegate that game to second place, because that dubious honor now belongs to Banana.
I’m talking about a game where you simply click on the still image of a banana as many times as you can. No, I’m not talking about a game such as Cookie Clicker where repeatedly clicking on a cookie will bring you new results for days on end.
Banana is a different thing, because as far as in-game events go, nothing happens beyond seeing the counter that tells you how many times you’ve clicked on the banana — or on the screen, really — go up a number. So, why did the good folks at PC Gamer find more than 30,000 people clicking on that banana at the same time? Yes, SteamDB shows that a little bit over twenty hours ago, more people were clicking on the banana than they were playing Diablo 4 and Fallout 76.
It turns out that it’s not because of the game itself — for most people, at least, I hope. The thing about Banana is that it’s an Egglike, the term that journalist Harvey Randall used to define the genre before anyone had the courage to, so that’s what it’ll be for now on. Egg is a game about, well, clicking an egg. Thing is, in both games, clicking will get clickers some sort of actual rewards.
It works somewhat similarly to Steam’s collectible game cards. Thing is, whereas you’ll earn a limited amount of cards just by having a regular game open on the background, Banana‘s bananas can be amassed by playing the game for one minute, then for spamming clicks for every three hours, and there’ll be a chance to earn a rare banana once every 18 hours.
All in all, this is a bizarre way to pass your time and to try to earn some money — some of these bananas are getting sold for dozens of bucks. Still, there are a few interesting surprises here. One, PC Gamer states that Banana has a surprisingly wholesome community, meaning that people are probably aware of the bonkers-ness of it all, and are in it also for the laughter. Second, just how refreshing is it to learn of a wacky game revolving around pictures, that has nothing to do with damn NFTs or any sort of dumb Blockchain-driven stuff?
You can now try to earn hundreds or perhaps even thousands of cents on Banana on Steam.
