games
17 June 2024, at 20:04
Banana doesn’t impress with its gameplay and flat graphics (let’s call it that), but it’s still one of the most popular games on Steam.
Image source: Robert Bartison.
I
to update:
banana I had a great weekend on Steam and things are clearly not slowing down. 3 hours ago He died New Activity Log – Production has been launched on 858,915 Valve user accounts, Make room Only to the second CS. What’s more, banana occupy It currently ranks 11th overall in terms of concurrent players on Steam and is close to Baldur’s Gate 3’s score of 10th (875,343 people playing simultaneously).
Original post (June 13, 9:38 a.m.)
The gaming market is no stranger to unexpected successes that attract tens or even hundreds of thousands of players out of nowhere. However, there is a special case Free indistinct mare bananawhich so far more than 300 thousand Steam users together. Thanks to this, the title exists today The fourth most popular production on SteamAt its peak, he ranked third in the rankings.
Oh banana!
It appears that the title by Robert Bartison “aaladin66” is actually a parody of Persians, which is what he pointed out YouTube The Spiffing Brit. After launching the game, a window opens with a banana on its yellow back, which we have to click on. Yes, that’s all the “fun” in this title.
The creator didn’t even try to add achievements for every 10, 100, etc. Well, there’s only one achievement: one click on a banana. Therefore, it is not an attractive site for people vying for a position in the ranking of Steam accounts with the most achievements, unlike the previous production by aaladin66: Let me slide.
F2P is not enough
The first explanation for the phenomenon of this production might be that it is available for free, except in the store with optional banana patterns (yes, the title offers micropayments). However, the free-to-play model itself doesn’t explain why such a modest output remains in the top five games on Steam, beating free-to-play games like Apex Legends or Naraka: Bladepoint, not to mention games like War Thunder or Team Fortress 2.
Absurd market
Sure evidence of the sources of success banana It is the fact that the game card highlights the items to be purchased – the previously mentioned Banana variants, which each cost PLN 1.05. However, when we check any of them, we find that Elements of banana It can be sold in the community market for a higher amount.
The most expensive of these items are available for purchase from users for PLN 2.46 – more than double their cost in the game itself. No, it’s not too high a price that no one will pay. Shinobinan can be sold immediately for PLN 2.42.
This item can be purchased from the game store for PLN 1.05. Source: Steam.
Rare and speculative drops
what is important, You don’t have to buy these items at all. banana It has a system of dropping “items” that can be obtained for active play. Of course, most of them are worthless in reality, but they show interesting statistics: The most popular loot has over 2 million copies available on Steam. No purchase offers found.
However, on the other side we have much rarer items. The chance of getting a diamond banana is one in a million. Effect: You can sell it immediately for PLN 184. Back The most expensive copies Users are willing to pay approximately PLN 800, and some have spent more than PLN 2,000.
It should be noted that the selling price has increased over time. The same item was initially sold for about PLN 100, and only over time its “value” increased significantly. The fact that the gameplay is very simple is an advantage in this case, because the game does not require much attention from the user and does not use system resources (processor, graphics card, etc.). You only need to tap once every 18 hours to get a rare item (it doesn’t require running the game constantly).
To make it more interesting: I’m intentionally not using the word “skins” because Currently, these “skins” cannot be used in the game. Presumably the creator will add such an option in the near future, but for now these bananas are completely useless in the context of “gaming”.
In short, all magic banana It is actually a speculative market where players hope to make an easy profit by purchasing items in the hope of selling them at a higher price. Essentially, the whole concept was based on a similar assumption as NFT tokens, with the addition of the “rare” aspect known only in collectible card games.
Bananas without pits
So the question arises: What does the Creator gain from it? Well, apart from the revenue from selling items (because in every transaction the developer and Steam get money) Netizens accused Partison of using the game to mine cryptocurrencies, which he quickly denied (via steam). In fact, there is no evidence of virtual “mining” in the background of the app, even though it has been 3 weeks since its launch.
Aside from the accusations regarding the creator’s opinions (the German deleted his recent titles on Steam, which – without going into details – were rather controversial), netizens also noticed that Partison hid his inventory on Steam, even though it had previously been publicly available . Therefore, it is difficult to say how many ridiculous offers to buy or sell come from the developer.
Of course, as is usually the case on the Internet, not all Internet users engage in serious discussions. Some players are more interested in memes, for example suggestions to continue with cucumbers, or different speculations about bananas. Not necessarily virtual.
“Prone to fits of apathy. Introvert. Award-winning internet evangelist. Extreme beer expert.”
