This is the “Among Us” starting screen showing the characters that people play as.
You head toward the electrical room to fix the lights when you see a green person run past you. As you approach the hallway that they came from, you see it. Pink’s dead body on the ground.
“Among Us” is a video game that is mainly available on an online platform called Steam, as well as mobile app stores. It is another adaptation of the game “Mafia” or “Murder Mystery” that can be played online with friends or with random people. In the game, there are crewmates and imposters. The crewmates run around and do tasks while the imposters sabotage things and try to kill everyone. The crewmates don’t know who the imposters are and they have meetings to discuss who they think it is and try to eliminate them from the game.
Although “Among Us” debuted at the end of 2018, its rise to popularity started in July this year. In fact, the game peaked in September with almost 133,000 new downloads on Steam, reaching over 438,00 players according to Steamcharts. It currently has over 100 million downloads across all platforms.
So how did “Among Us” become so popular so fast? One of the obvious answers is the game itself. It’s clear that people have always been drawn to murder mystery style games that involve in game killing and investigation. “The game lets me pull out my detective skills,” said junior Ishaanvi Saini.
“Among Us” has also gained popularity on popular streaming platforms like Twitch, contributing to its rise in popularity.. The game ranked first on Twitch in September and is currently ranked third with an average of 143,000 viewers per day according to Twitchtracker. With an average of 2,611 channels streaming “Among Us” daily, the game was bound to reach new people.One of these people was U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who created a Twitch account to stream “Among Us.”
Screenshot taken from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch stream, where she plays “Among Us.”
Another advantage of “Among Us” is that people can play it with their friends no matter where they are. This is especially appealing during this time when everyone has to socially distance; people are able to play while also staying safe. Since “Among Us” is available on Steam and in mobile app stores, almost anyone can access it.. Each lobby in the game displays a game code that people can type in so that they’re in the same game as their friends. “I started playing Among Us because a friend recommended it to me. A bunch of other people that I knew played it so I thought it would be fun to play with friends,” said junior Braeden Grimes.
Saini also said that she plays “Among Us” with her friends. “ It’s just really entertaining and funny,” she added.
Google Play store advertisement promotes “Among Us.” This shows what it is like to be an imposter.