Remember the viral cat meme that covers pop songs in only meows while slapping an instrument? Well, that Bongo Cat, created by StrayRogue, has now inspired one of Steam’s most popular idle games of the same name. Released for free on March 5, 2025, Bongo Cat has quickly climbed to the top of the Steam charts, cresting into the top 5 active players by late April 2025. So a lot of people are ‘playing’ Bongo Cat, but why?
Bongo Cat is an idle game that is an extension of the player’s keyboard and mouse. While open and running, a Bongo Cat with a counter appears on the player’s screen. Then, every time a key is pressed or the mouse is clicked, the Bongo Cat slaps the counter to go up by one. It’s cute and fun as just a simple digital companion. However, that doesn’t fully explain why Bongo Cat has caught fire with Steam’s player base.
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Now’s your meowment.
Bongo Cat gives rewards for playing
The big twist at least partially propelling Bongo Cat to its current glory is the promise of free money. Not very much money, have you, but free money nonetheless. Every 30 minutes of playtime in Bongo Cat grants players a random loot drop. These random loot drops contain wearable accessories for the Bongo Cat, which can be traded on the Steam Community Market. Granted, almost every drop is worth $0.01, but considering that the game is free to download, it is handing out money to its players. As of late April 2025, the highest bid on an item is $46 for the Silly Post It item.
Bongo Cat’s loot table probabilities:
- Common – 90%
- Uncommon – 9.5%
- Rare – 0.49%
- Epic 0.01%
- Legendary – 1 in 500,000
Other idle games like Banana have also implemented NFT-adjacent gaming practices to draw in players to their free-to-play models and reward them for playing. Bongo Cat does so in a novel way, introducing a beloved meme as a cute digital companion that also tracks interesting personal stats. You can check out Bongo Cat for yourself to see what all the hype is about.
Bongo Cat System Requirements
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Minimum:
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 / 11
- Processor: Intel i5 5200 or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- Graphics: Any
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 100 MB available space
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Recommended:
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 / 11
- Processor: Intel i5 10500 or AMD Ryzen 7
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: Any
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 100 MB available space
