It’s 2020. The RTX 3000 series has just been announced. PS5 will be out in a few days. There are many cool games and remasters. You can be sure that gamers are relying on graphics more and spending more in order to play AAA games.
Among Us is a living example of how 2D games can still be successful. It’s amazing that a game released in 2018 only gained popularity two years later.
What is the Difference Between Us?
Among Us is a social deductive game by Inner Sloth, an indie developer. The game is played by 4-10 players. 1-3 players are fakes, while the rest are fellow crew members.
The game’s goal is simple and straight forward. Crewmates must complete a variety of tasks before they are killed. Crewmates win if they successfully expel the imposter or complete a task. The imposter is declared victorious if they kill all their crewmates, or until there are no more imposters.
There are other elements, such as vents and sabotages, that imposters can use in order to tilt the balance in their favor. It seems perfect on paper. The game was a disaster upon its release. This is an understatement.
In 2018…
Among Us was released for the first time as a mobile game that allowed only local multiplayer. It was meant to be casual party game for iOS and Android. This was the first mistake the developers made. Discord, Team Speak and all other apps on the planet have made it impossible to get gamers together in a single room. The game was still released and was playing well with 30-50 people concurrently.
Marcus Bromander, the designer, believed that poor marketing was responsible for the release of the game. The company was determined to make it work, and they kept rolling out updates. They even published an online version of their game with a Steam release coming later.
The developers had to work hard for two years in order to continue updating a game that was probably costing them more than it was making them. This is when big things happened and the game gained a large following. The game’s original 30-50 players quickly grew to 1.5 million concurrent peak players.
This is everything that went right with Among Us, making it the most played game in the world at the moment:
The Memes
We’ll just list the most important reasons for the game’s popularity. It’s the memes. r/AmongUs was also a hit, with hilarious cross-over memes.
Since I hadn’t been watching Twitch or YouTube in a while, I didn’t know about the game until I saw memes. You can ignore some memes if you don’t understand the context. However, with constant spamming on memes pages across all social networks, I became curious and decided to find out more about the game. This is not something I did alone.
Did you know memes can be a great marketing tool?
Ideal for Quarantine
Quarantine was difficult for all. It has taken us from our loved ones and made us feel isolated in our rooms. Although quarantine has been lifted in different countries around the world, it’s still not normal. We can’t get together with our friends as we once could.
While some games allow you to play with three or four friends, Among Us allows you to play with 10 people. This is a great game that you can play both online and in person.
Compatible with everything
Among Us runs on any device, from an iPhone to a Samsung Fridge. It’s a 2D game, which is why we mentioned it earlier.
Many of us have gaming rigs that can run more complex games than Among Us. But we all have friends who aren’t as into gaming but still enjoy the hobby. Even if they aren’t able to play Modern Warfare with us, they can still play Among Us together.
Among Us is also available for iOS, Android, Steam, and Windows. It is available for free on smartphones. However, it can be purchased on Steam for $3-$5 depending on where you live. A cracked version of this game is available on separate servers. All platforms are cross-playable. Cross-play is possible with even the cracked version of Steam.
The Constant Updates
Inner Sloth doesn’t have a large staff. The company is made up of only three people. It’s true, three people. This trio of people created the game and kept it updated for two years, without any monetary reward. It barely reached any Steam sales and nearly no one was paying for cosmetics. Inner Sloth kept the game up to date for two more years.
Among Us was a game with less than 100 players at a time. It had to be quickly upgraded to handle over a million users. This feat deserves a standing ovation. Despite their efforts to keep it relevant, Twitch streamers noticed the game. I’ll be discussing this next.
Twitch Popularity
Inner Sloth owes a lot of their success to Chance Morris (a Twitch streamer holding number 27), who streamed Among Us and it instantly exploded on that platform.
People love streamers such as Shroud, Ninja and Tfue. It’s a great entertainment experience to watch ten streamers snatching at each others necks and telling lies to them. It was a simple game called Monkey See Monkey Do… Everyone loved it. Instantly, the number of players grew. The rest is history.
What’s Next?
The devs announced Among Us 2 due to the game’s success. The devs have not revealed any details about the new game, but they know that it will be very different from the one we currently have.
