This free Steam 'game' is being played more than Stellar Blade and Elden Ring Nightreign — even though it's just a cat

Bongo Cat is an idle 'game' that lives on your desktop.
This is Bongo Cat. It lives on your desktop. It is adorable. (Image credit: Windows Central)

Wow, a top five game on Steam with more players than Stellar Blade and Elden Ring Nightreign?! Must be something incredible, right?

Well, that depends on your interpretation of incredible.

The game in question is Bongo Cat. Only it's not really a game. It's listed as a game, and it has game features such as Steam Achievements, but it's not something you really play.

Bongo Cat is an idle game that sits on your taskbar looking all adorable and tracking your clicks. Clicks on your mouse, clicks on your keyboard, Bongo Cat will count them all.

As well as tapping away alongside you.

Do you need Bongo Cat in your own life? Probably. Don't take my word for it though, how about this short Steam review that says everything you need to know:

"Perfect game. 10/10, productivity has never been this adorable."

Dress up your Bongo Cat a little, why not?! (Image credit: Marcel Zurawka / Irox Games)

At the time of writing, Bongo Cat has a 24-hour peak of just under 180,000 concurrent users. So what's a guy to do when he sees such a curiosity flying high? Bongo Cat has debuted on my taskbar. Not really sure where else to go from there.

There are some settings, though I'm not really sure why I'd want to change the FPS I'm getting from my little cat. If you can't run it at 60 FPS, then I'm not sure you can even run Windows. It's not exactly demanding.

On a more serious note, there, it seems to use a barely noticeable amount of your system resources. So you can leave little Bongo Cat there all day and still open at least two or three Chrome tabs.

So, what's the point? Does there have to be one? It's a cute little cat, dammit. You can apparently earn some cosmetics to dress up your cat with, or buy them, if you wish, but I don't know too much about that. I'm still firmly a Bongo Cat novice.

Grab Bongo Cat for free now on Steam.

Richard Devine
Managing Editor - Tech, Reviews

Richard Devine is a Managing Editor at Windows Central with over a decade of experience. A former Project Manager and long-term tech addict, he joined Mobile Nations in 2011 and has been found on Android Central and iMore as well as Windows Central. Currently, you'll find him steering the site's coverage of all manner of PC hardware and reviews. Find him on Mastodon at mstdn.social/@richdevine

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.