Bongo Cat now has more players than Banana clicker, but the reality isn’t as good as we’d hoped

Who would've guessed that a desktop buddy game would actually knock the banana clicker off its throne? Sounds ridiculous, I know, but it's a seriously big deal. Steam’s top 5 games list is usually dominated by the heavy hitters – CS2, Dota 2, PUBG, Apex Legends, and lately Marvel Rivals or that Banana that blew up last year. But now, another idle game has taken its spot. I'd love to say that means the bot invasion is done and dusted... but nope, they're still around.

Bots, bots everywhere

The idle clicker game Banana (the one where you just click a banana to earn things) has ended up being a magnet for bots thanks to its reward system. The virtual items you get, also called “bananas,” can actually be sold on the Steam Marketplace, and some go for crazy prices. Like, a Special Golden Banana sold for over $1,300 in 2024.

Because of the game's simplicity and the potential for profit, people started setting up bot farms – automated systems that run multiple accounts simultaneously to rake in those bananas. By mid-2024, it was reported that only about a third of the players were actual humans. No surprise it stayed at the top of the Steam charts for so long.

Even the devs admitted the problem, with one community manager calling it a “legal infinite money glitch.” But despite all that, not much has been done to stop it. That’s led to lot of debate about how legit the game really is and whether Steam’s anti-bot systems even exist at this point, because it sure doesn’t seem like they’re doing much.

Source: SteamDB

Now Bongo Cat is facing similar problem. This cozy companion had a great launch, and I was genuinely impressed watching the player count climb day by day. Major props to the dev for actually listening to feedback and tweaking things based on what the community said. Things really took off on April 3rd, and by April 11th it officially took Banana’s crown. Earlier today, it was even sitting at number 4 on Steam’s most played list, with over 150,000 concurrent players. But sadly, it’s not all good news.

Source: Steam Marketplace

Just like what happened with Banana, bots were already creeping in before that rise. This time around, they’re farming collectible things like hats for the cat and other silly stuff. Sure, these aren’t selling for Golden Banana-level prices, but there’s still money in it, like the Cuckoo Clock going for $13.50 on the Marketplace. And where there’s money, bots follow.

To his credit, the dev, Marcel Zurawka (aka Spiced Pigeon on Steam), has acknowledged the issue and is trying to fight back. He’s looking into things like trade limits to slow the bot wave. Unfortunately, one of the first moves was disabling the trading system altogether, which definitely hit regular players hard. But even with those efforts, the bots are still hanging around. It’s about time Steam stepped in and did something real about it.

Bongo Cat

March 5, 2025

Rate It!

• Overview

• Steam
• indie games
• clicker, idle game
• PC