A clicker game on Steam recently became the talk of the town after some of the most popular games on the platform were reversed. ‘Banana’ became a sensation for its NFT-like rewards, which can be sold for more than $1,000 on Steam’s marketplace. However, the click phenomenon has sparked a debate among members of the crypto community about the state of crypto and web3 gaming.
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The Clicker Game sensation from Peeling Steam
Banana is an indie game on Steam that consists of clicking on the image of a banana to obtain rewards. While this isn’t the first of its kind, players will be rewarded with digital bananas every few hours. Rewards can range from common bananas worth pennies to rare bananas, which can be sold for up to $1,300.
The free-to-play game made headlines after surpassing some of the most popular titles on the platform. Banana has overturned Elder Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3 in the list of most played games. The clicker game came in second only to Counter-Strike 2.
At the time of writing, the game remains the fourth most played game on Steam, with over 344,000 current players and a peak of 578,000 in the last 24 hours. Furthermore, it reached an all-time high of 917,000 players earlier this month.
However, the simplicity of the game caused some alarm among gamers. Many believed that the clicker game contained malware that turns devices into crypto miners. While others wondered if the game was some kind of scam.
One of Banana’s developers, Hery, denied the allegations. Hery told the news media outlet Polygon that it is “pretty much a stupid game” involving bananas, and not a scam.
Many users also speculated whether the game was related to NFTs and cryptocurrencies, as it had an NFT-like feel but without the blockchain technology. A Banana team member clarified that “Banana wants nothing to do with crypto.”
She explained that the game did not plan to integrate crypto, as it does not “mix well” with Steam. Furthermore, they emphasized that it started out as “a goofy game to collect some bananas on your Steam profile.”
Will Crypto and Web3 Gaming Go Banana?
Although Banana has no plans to integrate with the crypto industry, the game sparked several conversations within the community. Several members took the opportunity to discuss its implications for web3 gaming.
One user highlighted the game’s popularity despite its simple mechanics, stating that the industry doesn’t need “AAA games” to break out. Several community members agreed and suggested there is a misconception about the type of games needed in web3.
While people think that complex and super action games are the only option, “guys just want to have fun and earn points,” said one X user. Apparently the sentiment among many was that the sector ‘makes it more complicated than it is’.
Some users to believe that Banana and similar games can help with web3 gaming. The game’s meme quality was pointed to as a potential catalyst for wider adoption.
Similarly, Avalanche Gaming discussed the implications of Banana on its Gamified Show this week. According to Paul Bettner, game developer and co-founder of Playful Studios, Banana could be an foray into the larger world of crypto gaming.
According to Bettner, “the behavior that we all love and participate in as degens and web3 and crypto-native users is in fact universal.” As he watches Steam’s clicker sensation evolve, the game developer is watching noticed that users were “a bunch of swords who don’t yet know they are swords.”
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Ultimately, he believes that “people learn how to degenerate.” If most of these users knew “what a wallet or a blockchain was, they would realize they could do that at 1000x the scale of a blockchain.”
Featured image from Unsplash.com, chart from TradingView.com