[Tech Talk] Scam or Money Copier... The Truth Behind the 'Banana Game'

A Game Where You Log In Every 3 Hours to Get Bananas
When Ordinary Bananas Sell for Hundreds of Dollars
Hundreds of Thousands Flock to Banana Logins

Recently, a suspicious game has been attracting attention in the gaming industry. The game's name is 'Banana'. In fact, it is not even a proper game. If you log in once every three hours, you receive an item called 'Banana', and that's all. However, this game has gained tremendous popularity, recording a peak concurrent user count of 800,000 on the world's largest gaming platform, Steam. What on earth is going on?

Log in once every three hours to get a rare Banana

'Banana' game screen. [Image source=Online community capture]

Banana is a so-called 'clicker game'. As the name suggests, you can click the banana button with your mouse cursor. But clicking the button itself has no meaning. The true value of this game lies in collecting 'rare bananas' that change color every three hours.

Rare bananas are the core of the game. This is because the banana items in this game can be bought and sold among users for real US dollars through Steam's trading platform. This feature, called the 'Steam Market', was originally created as a marketplace for users to trade game items.

Although they are just worthless banana images, the fact that their value is increased through user trading is similar to the once-booming NFTs. However, the Banana game is not an NFT. It does not use blockchain technology. It simply involves people buying and selling banana graphics that have no function within the game.

A $300 Banana Bought by Someone Sparks a Fire

On the 17th, the number of Banana players approached 800,000 [Image source=Steam DB capture]

The problem is that this game suddenly started gaining enormous popularity. It began when a rare banana named 'Crypticnana' was sold for $379 (about 520,000 KRW). There are countless bananas in the game, but only 25 Crypticnanas exist. Afterward, the price of Crypticnana rose to $514 (about 700,000 KRW). Just by collecting bananas in the game, players could earn tens of thousands of won. A reporter from the US media outlet Forbes described this phenomenon as a "money copier."

Who was the first to pay hundreds of dollars for a banana item? Why did the demand for this item skyrocket? No one knows. The three developers of the Banana game do not disclose information about who profits from banana trading.

In fact, even the developers are baffled by the game's success. One of the developers, 'Harry', even described the game he made as a "stupid game" in an interview with the US gaming media Polygon.

However, once someone started buying bananas at high prices, a 'banana market' was born instantly. Now, bananas are frequently found being bought and sold at prices exceeding $1,000 (about 1,380,000 KRW). The number of people logging in to get rare bananas reaches millions. At one point, the game's concurrent users exceeded 800,000. This figure surpasses that of globally popular games like Counter-Strike and Dota 2.

An Era Where Anything Can Become a 'Meme Stock'

The explosive popularity of the Banana Game shares similarities with the craze surrounding NFTs and meme stocks.

The success of the Banana game closely resembles the rise and fall of 'meme' stocks and coins. Someone starts buying as a joke, and through the ultra-fast communication network of online communities, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of market participants are gathered, creating a massive trend. The GameStop frenzy listed on the US stock market and Dogecoin, which was mentioned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, are representative examples.

Just like past meme stocks and coins, the Banana boom will eventually fade suddenly. However, as long as there are still people willing to buy and sell rare bananas for tens or hundreds of thousands of won, users trying to make pocket money will continue logging in every three hours. In fact, most users logging into this game are said to be automated bots rather than real people.

The Banana incident is important because it shows what trading looks like in a fully computerized era. Compared to the massive financial markets, the banana items on the Steam Market are probably insignificant in terms of liquidity. However, if there is a possibility of earning some pocket money just by looking at the game screen every three hours, someone will participate in the market.

The problem is that because information spreads so quickly, prices violently surge and then suddenly collapse repeatedly. While a very small number of participants will strike it rich, those who buy banana items at absurd prices just to catch the last ride of the party will end up losing money.

Above all, the Banana game incident serves as a warning to the gaming industry itself. The gaming industry, both domestically and internationally, has already faced various controversies over gambling and microtransactions for game items. However, the Banana game has proven the possibility that any game can turn into a speculative market if conditions are right.