The Rise and Fall of Among Us

What is Among Us?

Among Us is a multiplayer game developed and published by American game studio Inner sloth. The game takes place in a space-themed setting, in which players each take on one of two roles, most being crewmates, and a 1-3 impostors. The goal of the crewmates are to identify the impostors, eliminate them, and complete tasks around the map. The impostor’s goal is to sabotage and kill the crewmates before they complete all of their tasks. Players that are suspected to be impostors may be eliminated by the popular vote, which any player may initiate by calling an emergency meeting (except during a crisis) or reporting a dead body. Crewmates win if all impostors are voted out or all tasks are completed, whereas impostors win if they kill/vote out all the crewmates.

How did Among Us become so popular?

The game was originally released in 2018 but gained a lot of popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic due to well-known twitch streamers and youtubers. According to Stream charts, Among Us held an average of 151,000 players in September 2020. From becoming the most viewed game on streaming platforms to ranking as one of the most played games on Steam, Among Us took the entire gaming community by storm last year.

Downfall

The player count dramatically decreased by 73% to about 43,000 players by the new year. The creators added a new feature called “quick chat” and that made many people stop playing because it limited what you can say in chat. Many people who play the game like to explain what they saw in detail but with he “quick chat” that’s not possible. After that, there was another update where you HAD to login or else you couldn’t play with a special nickname. Without that update, you could have anything as your nickname but the creators wanted the game to be more “kid friendly” so now there are randomly generated names if you do not login.

Among Us earned the title of “most popular game ever in terms of monthly players” along with making many memories.