Fill Me In
The murder mystery game set in space by Innersloth LLC has reached 100 million downloads on the Google Play store, with 3.8 million concurrent players worldwide.
What’s Among Us?
A take on popular game formats like Werewolf and Mafia, the game works on the idea of social deception — find the traitor(s) (or in Among Us’ case, the imposters) within your team of crewmates.
As the game progresses, crewmates must try to complete their tasks, and imposters are to murder crewmates and sabotage the spaceship without getting caught.
How did it get so popular?
The game itself isn’t very new. It came out in 2018 but hit massive popularity this year, especially among Twitch streamers. Part of its success is that it is free to download and play on mobile phones.
Its simple objectives and controls also make it easy to pick up for anyone familiar with using a smartphone. Among Us has about 3.8 million concurrent players worldwide today.
Another reason for its success is its social aspect. The game is scalable for four to 10 players, with each player taking on specific roles. Teaming up to figure out who is the most suspicious among you or getting away with murder while the rest of the team turn against an innocent bystander is also always fun.
For those who aren’t into playing, the game is a thrill to watch online. Among Us averaged only a couple of hundred viewers earlier this year, but by August, Among Us was seeing an average of 100,000 viewers per game.
What’s next for Among Us?
Innersloth LLC announced plans for a sequel for Among Us in August, but an official blog post has since confirmed that Among Us 2 has been cancelled. The original plan was to update the codebase of the original game, as it is outdated and not built to support adding new content.
“However, seeing how many people are enjoying Among Us 1 really makes us want to be able to support the game and take it to the next level. We have decided to cancel Among Us 2 and instead, put all our focus into improving Among Us 1,” the blog post stated.
Immediate improvements that Innersloth LLC is working on include fixing server issues for a more stable playing experience and a Friends/Account system that will allow gamers to add players as friends met in public lobbies.
The popularity of the game has also encouraged Innersloth LLC to work on its user interface and accessibility through colourblind support. Since part of the game’s quests are colour-dependent, more distinct colour choices will allow colourblind players to join in the fun.
