Banana has become one of the hottest topics of the moment in the world of PC Gaming. This product asks you nothing more than to click on a picture of a Banana and then basically wait to get some Steam items to resell to the game community, so as to earn money. Of course the developer and Steam itself take their part.
Now, the author insists that Banana it is absolutely not a scam. No, seriously, it’s all legit.
Scam or fruit? How much does Banana earn and why is it so successful
A Discord post from one of Banana’s three developers and co-owner, aestheticspartan, said the team had parted ways with one of its members after it emerged that he had been accused of being involved in a Steam scam. This team member denied any involvement in a scam, instead stating that an influx of money obtained through the Steam Marketplace was the result of a bug. Despite their involvement, “there is no scam or fraud going on,” aestheticspartan insisted.
Speaking instead of potential earnings, Steam offers an hour-by-hour breakdown of the number of items sold. Using the last full day, June 18, 2024, as an example, a total of 1,993,669 bananas were sold (basic version, sold at 3 cents). The minimum profit of each item sold is one cent for Valve (which gets 5%, but no less than €0.01), so Valve has potentially earned a total of $19,936.69 from sales of this single banana category in the 24 hour period.
However, it is the most common item, so it is sold in large quantities; if we take other types of objects, we can see that the figures are smaller. The Rainbow Banana, for example, is currently priced at around $0.75, but typically fewer than 50 are sold per hour, rather than the thousands of more common types. The most expensive item, the Crypticnana of which only 25 exist, has been sold four times for value greater than $1,000 from June 17th.
As for the reason for the product’s popularity, development team member “Hery” told Polygon that Banana is an “infinite money glitch” of real life. “I think the reason it caught on is because it’s an infinite money legal scam,” Hery said. “Users make money in a free game by selling free virtual items.”
The authors also admitted that Banana had a bot problem in the beginning, with only a third of all participants being real players. Whether or not this figure has changed since Banana blew up remains to be seen, though Hery said the development team has reached out to Valve for help with the issue.
Obviously various clones are already arriving.
