Among Us is the new quarantine craze as people try to stay connected in the midst of a pandemic. The simplicity and social aspects of the game allows players to connect while keeping physically distanced.
The game has recently become popular over the past month, spiking in interest the week of September 20th according to Google search trends.
Launched in 2018 by indie game company InnerSloth, Among Us is a multiplayer social deduction game. Games are played between 4-10 players who are randomly assigned either the role of crewmate or imposter. Crewmates complete tasks as imposters try to kill them before all tasks are completed. As the game progresses, crewmates try to catch the imposter through meetings and decide who to vote out.
Players are also able to join public servers with random players and private servers with friends. This has given people to meet new people and connect to friends they have not seen due to COVID-19 regulations. These socialization features as seen in Among Us have been especially important.
According to a survey done in April by Value Penguin, 47% of Americans were feeling lonelier than usual after the public was advised to stay home.
To help ease the stress and create a sense of togetherness during a time apart, people have taken a special interest in games they can add friends and make new ones. Games with similar socialization features such as Minecraft and Animal Crossing: New Horizons have provided people with connection to others as loneliness increases.
Voice chat apps to talk to others during the meetings have also gained popularity such as Discord due to Among Us, showing a spike in interest September 20th on Google’s search trends as well.
Among Us also presents a simple artistic style. The basic color choices and two dimensional art style is different from video games such as Call of Duty and League of Legends which includes three dimensional game play and heavily detailed graphics.
This has greatly increased opportunities for exposure from fans. Even beginning artists can replicate the bean-shape characters; those with more experience have lots of freedom to play around with style and give their own spin on the game’s art.
Content creators also contribute to the mass production of fanart and relatable memes, allowing people to connect. Being able to relate to others further allows people to feel a sense of togetherness.
While the pandemic continues to separate friends, games such as Among Us provide the social connections many have felt they lost. Fighting loneliness with an amusing social game has provided many with the togetherness people have been chasing since social distancing was advised.