Viral Steam Hit Bongo Cat Doesn’t Actually Make Any Money

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For several months now, a popular game named Bongo Cat has been frequently occupying the number one spot on Steam’s list of simultaneous players, sharing this prestigious position with long-standing leaders like Counter-Strike 2 and PUBG in the top five. However, it’s been disclosed in a recent interview that despite consistently attracting more than 150,000 concurrent players, Bongo Cat isn’t generating any revenue for its developer.

Marcel Zurawka, who serves as CEO and co-founder of Irox Games, the creators of Bongo Cat, shared insights in a recent conversation with Eurogamer about the game’s widespread popularity. Despite having a large number of players, Zurawka admitted that the studio hasn’t seen substantial financial gains from this success.

Zurawka stated, “Some folks remarked, ‘You’re rich now,’ but that’s nonsense. I didn’t create this for money at all.” He transparently reveals Bongo Cat’s monthly earnings – $4050 in April, the game’s most viral month, $3800 in May, and currently $2800 for June.

He also mentions that we aren’t even saving money by hiring a developer. In fact, if you consider the figures, it ultimately results in a financial loss for us in the long run.

Bongo Cat functions as a free desktop application disguised as an idle game. This software places a small cat icon on your taskbar that reacts to every keyboard key press or mouse click by tapping its paws. As the counter increases, the cat can uncover various hats, which can be swapped in community marketplaces for real currency. However, this feature has led to an increase in bot activity within the game.

According to Zurawka, the majority of Bongo Cat’s earnings typically comes not directly from marketplace transactions but rather from selling in-game cat skins as microtransactions, which account for more than half of their total revenue.

Bongo Cat’s primary intention was never to generate profits. As Zurawka expresses, the aim is to make it a convenient tool for everyone without any cost. He desires it to be easily accessible for all, and he doesn’t want to impose any financial barriers or create a paywall.

The positive outcome of the game’s success has served an unusual purpose within the studio, functioning as a powerful marketing asset to boost viewership and add-to-watchlist requests for their upcoming project, titled Oku.

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2025-06-27 12:09