The Game
As many of you may already know, an online game called Among Us has seemed to have blown up out of nowhere. It feels as though one day I just woke up and BAM. My whole Instagram and YouTube feeds were full of Among Us gameplay and content. I had no idea what it was and never really looked back. However, two days ago some friends told me to download the game so we could play with our friend group. I was excited to finally try playing and IT WAS SO FUN. Now I want to spend my free time playing, which to me is crazy. The game is pretty simple. It is a multiplayer game that can be played with four to ten players, in which you can customize your ‘character’ with hats and other items. In the game, you are either assigned to be a crewmate or an imposter. A crewmate’s goal is to complete the tasks on the spaceship to win. And the imposter’s goal is to kill as many crewmates as possible, without getting caught. There are rounds in which players can be voted off of the ship, which is where the peer discussion takes place. It is definitely fun but not always as easy as it seems!
Quarantine and Gaming
It is understandable that since more people are staying at home, gameplayers are spending more time playing. One source says that players are spending an extra 3 hours and 12 minutes per week, which is a 60% increase. Among Us is surely a part of an increase in gameplay. The New York Times has called Among Us the “…default platform for young people stuck in quarantine.”, which heeds to just how popular the game is. The game was originally created in 2018, yet has had a huge increase of players in the past few months. As seen in the graphs below, there has been a 708% increase in the number of players between August and September 2020. The game went from having on average 616 players in June 2020 to 192,919 players in the last 30 days! Of one the main reasons why this game increased in popularity was due to gamers streaming their gameplay on online streaming platforms, as well as uploading videos of gameplay to YouTube. Twitch fans alone have watched more than 200 million hours of Among Us gameplay so far in 2020. Not only this, memes of the game have been circling popular online social media platforms. Videos on TikTok that use the Among Us hashtag have now amassed over 19 billion views! Twitter account No Context Among Us is a popular Among Us content account, which posted the meme below. A quality meme in my opinion by the way.
Playing Together But Not Really
One of the things that I love about playing Among Us is that I get to talk with my friends while playing together, even though we aren’t even in the same room. I think that this game has brought a lot of people together and allows for some form of contact, even if it is virtual. It is basically just a virtual hangout. You can also play with random people, allowing for easy new connections and friends. I would even argue that the distance makes the game even better, as it is harder to tell if people are lying when you cannot see them! And easier to lie of course! I expect that the numbers of players will increase even more as another lockdown seems to be right around the corner. Overall, it is definitely a fun way to spend this time indoors while still being able to connect with friends. It is especially important in these times to still establish human connections, as loneliness may double a person’s risk of dying of cardiovascular disease. So don’t forget to stay in touch! 😊
Hi, thank you for the post. I was so excited when seeing someone finally writes about Among Us. Well, predictably because I also absolutely love it. I have had so many laughs playing it with friends (sometimes until 3 AM), enjoy the gameplay, and the Among Us memes crack me up every time.
Talking about its popularity, maybe you have heard about the news. 4 days ago, the attention the game receiving made the U.S Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decided to stream her gameplay on Twitch, encouraging people to vote. And just 1 day ago, Among Us has been under attack by a spambot that hijacked in-game chats with pro-Trump messages and slogans. I was both amused and worried that these unexpected events take a fun game to the ground of politics. Which will probably help the game gain more popularity…and tons of trouble.