How Among Us blew up online two years after release

The big viral games trends of 2020 have been a bit random and surprising. Twitch has been dominated by a few titles that have come out of nowhere. First up, Fall Guys became an overnight success, with Among Us following in its footsteps. This is a game about similar-looking bean characters, but its simple gameplay has proved to be a big success for streamers and content creators.

© Among Us

Among Us has blown up online in the past few weeks. This is a little weird though, considering when the game was released. It has been a bit of a sleeper hit, amassing a cult following in countries like Brazil. Emerging as a huge Twitch game though wasn’t really expected. It’s a testament to how strong the snowball effect of Twitch trends can be.

What is Among Us?

If you are living in cave, Among Us is the new overnight streamer hit over the past few weeks.  The game that was originally released in June 2018 and was sidelined fairly quickly. It’s also available on mobile for free, which has definitely helped its explosion.

The title is a top-down online game, that roughly approximates the plot of John Carpenter’s The Thing, for non-boomers its basically Warewolf/Mafia social deduction game . Up to 10 players are in a map working together. One to three players are assigned as imposters. Crewmates have to make repairs and try to keep things functioning well. The imposters have the job of sabotaging the ship and killing off crewmates.

Once a crewmate’s body is found, a discussion and vote are called. All players have to discuss who they think murdered the crewmate and chose someone to kick off the ship. The game can be fun to play in a content creator atmosphere. It relies pretty hard on the dialogue between players. They have to discuss, point fingers, and gradually figure out who to blame. However, it isn’t always that easy. The imposter can go to elaborate lengths to cover their own tracks, and frame other players where possible to take the blame for them.

This kind of gameplay makes Among us really fun to watch as well as play. With a decent content creator, the title can be a tense thriller. Others can do some stupid stuff with it too, like trying to make the game pay to win.

Why is Among Us Breaking Now?

The weirdest thing about Among Us is that it has taken so long to break out. It came out in 2018, and was relatively popular for a short period. However, that wasn’t really much compared to the current explosion in interest. Twitch has a tendency to snowball like this. Once a game gets a lot of viewers on it, streamers start to gravitate towards it. A popular category can mean more viewers for them. Then bigger streamers go to a game, more and more viewers are drawn in too. This can make an older game like Among Us an overnight hit.

Social streamer games are the new fad this year. More importantly content creators are enjoying the ability to play with other content creators in fun and engaging ways. From GTA Online racing through Fall Guys and now Among Us, influences and media personalities are finding ways to reach through to each others audiences while playing the same games.

Among Us is just the newest addition to the list,  and will probably be replaced within a month with a new/old title somebody digs out of their vault.

However, all the publicity comes with some benefits. Among Us is now going to receive a sequel in 2020. It is an impressive achievement for the strength of online attention. In the meantime, the original’s renaissance has been a lot of fun for content creators, players, and viewers.

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