You’re sitting at home in August 2020 scrolling through the app store, trying to find a new game to occupy your time. School hasn’t started yet but you’re bored of the same games you’ve been playing since March, so it’s time for something new. You see “Among Us” trending and decide to download it. 

The game “Among us” originally came out on June 15th, 2018. Just recently though, the game became popular because of Twitch streamers. 

Twitch is a streaming platform where people can share and livestream anything, but a lot of people use it for video games. In September 2020, “Among Us” exceeded 100 million downloads. After the game blew up, the player count reached 1.5 million players. Then it peaked at 3.8 million in late September this year. 

Fletcher Haase, an 8th grader at Vicksburg Middle School said, “My friends and I started playing [“Among Us”] at the beginning of September after it became popular on social media. We would facetime while playing, and it was a fun way to stay connected with them after not seeing them since March.” 

“Among Us” is a multiplayer game where you’re separated into crewmates and imposters. The objective of the game for crewmates and imposters is different. The crewmates are assigned to multiple tasks and are expected to complete them while trying to survive. While the impostor’s objective is to kill most of the crewmates onboard, without being caught. 

Once there’s an equal number of impostors and crewmates left alive, the impostors win. After something suspicious happens, like a dead body being found, the players call an emergency meeting and vote on who to kick out of the game. 

Ivan Padilla, a Loy Norrix senior said the game is different than most other games people play. 

“It’s a fun, simple, detective-task game that you can play without getting bored until after a few rounds,” said Padilla.

According to Newzoo’s article “Most Popular Core PC Games,” “Among Us” is the third most popular game, next to “League of Legends” and Tom Clancy’s “Rainbow Six: Siege.”

Lily Stickley, a Loy Norrix senior said, “I think it is popular because it is free to play, but it’s not like ‘Fortnite’ where the audience has to enjoy shooter games. This game can appeal to every type of gamer, as it’s not violent.”

However, Padilla thinks the game is popular because people enjoy that the characters are cute, and similarly to how “Fortnite” popularizes battle royales “Among Us” popularizes the imposter.

Loy Norrix Latin and Math teacher, Dyami Hernandez takes a different approach to the game “Among Us.” Although this is not his favorite game, he uses it during Social Emotional Learning for his students to have fun and connect with each other. 

“I definitely feel like I am connecting with the kids and that they are connecting with each other. I don’t know how well these students knew each other before this school year, but this is one of the few times my students unmute themselves and talk to each other,” Hernandez continued, “The great thing about ‘Among Us’ is that you are forced to talk to each other about who you think is the imposter. We get to talk about something that has nothing to do with school, and the kids get a kick out of seeing their teacher get killed.” 

Hernandez also says he has seen more engagement in his SEL. “Before I was seeing about 2 or 3 students. Now I have about 7 or 8,” Hernandez said.

In a poll on the Knight Life Instagram story, we asked the question, “What’s your favorite game right now?” Out of the nine people that responded, five said their favorite game was “Among Us.”

Stickley, one of the Knight Life followers said “Among Us” was her favorite game., 

“It is a really simple game, and it is also very fun to play. It is not complicated and almost any age can play,” said Stickley. “I also like the fact that it does not cause my phone a ton of issues when running it.”

The popularity of the game has reached some of the most famous YouTubers. They have made videos of themselves playing it and are getting millions of views. Mr. Beast has made nine “Among Us” related videos in the past month. The most popular video has 31 million views. 

Pewdiepie has also made “Among Us” related content and has videos with 12 million views. James Charles, who is typically a makeup YouTuber, made an “Among Us” video that reached 14 million views. 

Haase said Wilbur soot, Tommyinnit, and Lazarbeam are where he finds some of his favorite “Among Us” related YouTube videos. 

Stickley said, “I think it [the popularity] will last for a while longer, or at least until the next free game comes out. If you look at ‘Fall Guys,’ the popularity lasted only around 3 weeks because a new free game came out, ‘Among Us.’”

“I honestly don’t think it will last forever, just like Fortnite. I’ll give it a year until it becomes less popular,” said Padilla.