The Sudden Popularity of Among Us
Why did a two year-old party game suddenly blow up, and what makes it so much fun?
Over the last couple of months, there has been a dramatic surge in popularity for a previously obscure indie game released two years ago. When and why did Among Us blow up, and what makes it so fun to play and watch?
Among Us is a deduction party game similar to the popular party game Mafia. The video game was published in 2018 by InnerSloth, an indie studio of three people. For those unfamiliar with the workings of the game, three to eight crewmates aboard a spaceship aim to complete their various minigame tasks in different areas of a large map before they are eliminated by "impostors". The crewmates may also win by voting all of the impostors out. Discussion about impostors happens when a body is found or an emergency meeting is called, and at the end of each discussion, one player may be voted off.
Why did a game released two years ago that went unnoticed at the time suddenly become so popular? Various sources credit Twitch streamer Sodapoppin for the game’s sudden launch in player count; once the popular streamer's fanbase began to play, the game skyrocketed in popularity. Another possible source of the game’s spike in popularity could have something to do with the recent release of the Henry Stickmin Collection, a compilation of old flash games that may have appeared in current high schoolers’ childhoods by PuffballsUnited, who happens to be a member of InnerSloth. According to Google Search Trends, searches for the Collection spiked about a month before Google searches for Among Us.
But in the world of streaming, trends can catch on and quickly fall off again, as in the case of the recent indie battle royale game Fall Guys. The game had a strong and large player base after release which it eventually fell off due to a lack of content. The more important question is a game’s longevity: what makes Among Us fun enough to keep being played and viewed even with relatively little new content?
The same things that are making Among Us so popular right now made card games such as Poker and I Doubt It cultural fixtures centuries ago. The concept of the impostors being able to live out a stealthy and deceitful fantasy in the context of a game with no real life consequences is one of the main features of the game that have drawn so many people in. The other players, meanwhile, experience the tense feeling of knowing you could be killed at any moment, while also having to make the heavy decisions of who to vote out of the group as an impostor.
The allure of these tense situations makes the game just as fun to watch as to play; watching from a crewmate’s perspective allows viewers to learn the game with their favorite content creators, much like a detective story. On the other hand, watching from an impostor’s perspective creates a sense of dramatic irony, in which everyone but the impostor and the viewer is totally unaware as to who the impostor is.
The structure behind bluffing games and murder mysteries have been popular for many years, but Among Us places them in a modern, accessible format that encourages player cooperation and emphasizes discussion elements. Other Mafia variants tend to make the mafia the only players that know anything about who did what, or divide knowledge heavily among different roles. In Among Us, the world where players move around makes actual event-based testimony possible. In other party games of this type, the chances of the townsfolk winning are overly dependent on luck, while Among Us can be won through deductive reasoning. It improves on the game it was inspired by so heavily.
As video games and the culture around them develops, new renditions of old concepts are able to form spectacular games to play and watch that go by in moments. Some are made to go viral and some are built to be fun; some are cobbled together for quick cash and some are created as passion projects. Among Us is another fusion of well-known concepts, rebalanced and executed immaculately, made to be entertaining and enjoyed by many; it was these elements that contributed the game's current overwhelming popularity. Whether Among Us will be a passing trend or a cultural icon is up to chance, but this game's mix of murder mystery and team cooperation will likely continue to entrance gamers in the months to come.
It’s Conrad’s second year on the Edge staff and senior year at Edgewood. He loves to collect and play retro video games. When it comes to magazine he finds small design errors and has a fascination with em dashes.