Steam’s New Hit Idle Game Features Bots Selling In-Game Weapons for $1,000
Released at the end of May, TBH: Task Bar Hero has quickly become a top contender in Steam’s concurrent player rankings. The gameplay is straightforward: players relax as their tiny pixelated heroes engage in battles and collect loot, all while occupying a small section of their desktop’s taskbar. Currently, it sits at #3 on the concurrent users chart, trailing behind heavyweights like Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2. However, there’s a peculiar situation unfolding: a significant portion of its player base may not be genuine, and those who are real don’t seem particularly fond of the game.
Some players have suggested that the player count is inflated by bots farming rare items for resale on the Steam marketplace. Observations indicate a stark contrast between the player count and the number of reviews—around 487,000 concurrent players but only 4,072 reviews, with just 51 percent of those being positive. Despite the apparent dissatisfaction, the Steam marketplace is bustling with listings. The in-game wood resource alone has over 200,000 listings. While most items are common and priced cheaply, a few rare weapons are listed for over $1,000. It appears these bots may be misjudging the Steam economy, as one bow is listed for an astonishing $1,585.75, despite the highest recorded sale for that item being just $22.
Regardless of the bot situation, the game’s player count has been straining servers, a problem acknowledged by the developers in recent patch notes. Players have reported lag issues, including rare items vanishing. Shortly after TBH’s launch, Valve had to request that the developers announce a call for players to remove their items from the marketplace due to the overwhelming server load.
TBH includes anti-cheat software intended to prevent such issues, but it seems to be misidentifying players. Some users have reported being wrongly flagged as cheaters after launching other games while TBH was running, resulting in their Steam profiles receiving the dreaded red ban message. A few players have had their bans reversed after appealing, but the developers have not indicated any plans to adjust the anti-cheat measures, leaving many players uneasy.
“I have an almost 18-year-old account that just received a false game ban from this stupid idle game and a permanent mark on my Steam profile as a cheater – forever,” lamented one player, whose ban was later lifted. “This is a game that is a victim of its own success,” another player noted. “The devs never accounted for the sheer volume of people eager to make a quick buck on the marketplace, or the bots pushing the game to its limits.”
Steam has seen its share of surprisingly simple idle games rise to the top, like the unexpected sensation Banana, which is literally just an image of a banana, and Bongo Cat, which remains popular despite being based on an older meme. However, both of those games have received positive reviews, making their player counts more understandable. In contrast, TBH has faced complaints about invasive data collection, poor communication with players, and significant nerfs to drop rates, among other issues. Sounds a bit suspicious, doesn’t it?
