The World’s Most Popular Game Was Made By Three People.
After having released in 2018, and following a large spike in player base in late August 2020, Innersloth’s Among Us has become one of the most popular games of 2020. Yet, you might be shocked to hear that this game was created by only three people.
That’s right, the game that’s been skyrocketing on both the Steam Shop and the App Store was developed by a team of three: one developer, two artists, and a whole lot of passion. Innersloth released Among Us to small crowds of around 30 players, and now, as of September 27th 2020, it’s the third most played game on Steam behind longstanding legends Dota 2 and CS:GO.
Needless to say, it took some great effort for the developers to adjust to their game’s newfound popularity. Servers were down a lot, given that they weren’t meant for hundreds of thousand concurrent players. The team rushed to work on ideas for the sequel, and they recently released that it would be canceled and that they would focus on improving the original (a move that was met with great praise from the community).
Among Us’ popularity can mainly be attributed to Twitch streamers. Streamer Sodapoppin is often the one attributed to popularizing the game, and from then on, it got picked up by other famous streamers such as xQc, Ninja, Pewdiepie, pokimane, Ludwig, and DisguisedToast. Among Us is often found near if not at the top of the most viewed games on Twitch.
Not only is the PC version of Among Us experiencing this meteoric rise; the free mobile version surpassed 85 million downloads as of September 15th 2020. Viewers who watched their favorite Twitch streamers, wanted to play, but couldn’t afford the steam version could easily download the mobile version and play with random opponents. While the mobile version isn’t nearly as legitimate, it is extremely accessible.
So, why did this happen? Did Innersloth just get lucky? Did everyone on the planet get the sudden urge to play this mafia-esque spaceman party game? No, and here’s why.
If you’ve never played Among Us, watched any gameplay, or even seen some of the many memes that now plague the internet, first of all, how’s the rock you’ve been living under? The game consists of 4–10 players, 1–3 of which are deemed “imposters” and are given the goal of eliminating every “crewmate” in the game. While crewmates scour the map to complete a series of tasks, imposters can execute them, crawl through the vents, or sabotage the map. Every time a crewmate discovers a body or pushes an emergency meeting button, the whole crew discusses votes on who should be eliminated. This part of the game, in my opinion, is responsible for the game’s sudden success.
With the rise of streaming in this era of quarantining, streamers have dictated the popularity of a lot of new games. Riot Game’s Valorant was marketed by giving beta keys to people who watched Valorant streams. About a month ago, Mediatonic’s Fall Guys was played by what seemed like every single streamer on the platform. When people watch Twitch, there’s one main difference from simply playing the game for yourself: The Streamer.
The Streamer is a personality first, and a gamer second. The Streamer gets to decide what game they play and when they want to play it, and they’re usually going to choose a game that gets them more viewers. So what kind of game will let The Streamer show off their personality while also demonstrating their skill? Among Us.
Since the voting stage of Among Us consists of discussion between large groups, The Streamer can show off their personality. They can accuse someone of murder only for them to get voted off themselves and get sent into a fit of rage. They can assure the crew that one of their friends is safe, only to get backstabbed by him the next round. They can mute the call and talk to their chat about how nervous they are to kill the other crewmates. Among Us makes it easy for The Streamer to show off their stuff, or in some cases, get showed up by their companions.
Another aspect of Among Us is its very high player cap. It isn’t easy to make a collaborative game that can house 10 people all talking at the same time. The game demands teamwork, level-headedness, a good memory, good social skills, and a thirst for blood. When you’re put in the same room as 9 other players while handling this, chaos is sure to ensue.
The other benefit of the amount of players is the potential for collaborators. Collaboration in this case is a win-win-win. Smaller streamers get exposure by working with larger streamers and gaining viewership. Large streamers get even more popular as the game rises in popularity. And, the developers at Innersloth make bank as viewers start downloading their games so they can be just like their favorite streamers.
The idea of a game designed around its compatibility with streamers is a new and very profitable market. Among Us filled this niche perfectly, although possibly by accident. However, the streaming revolution is going nowhere, and Innersloth has to keep up in order to keep their game afloat. Games like Among Us have an expiration date; we saw it with Fall Guys. If the developers don’t maintain the game with consistent updates, it might fall by the wayside. If they can manage to release a substantial update within the next month, Among Us has a solid place in the running for the #1 game of 2020. Now this might mean expanding past their original three members, but I would be very excited to be proven wrong. If this small team at Innersloth can keep this game popular in the long run, it will certainly better my faith in indie development.
