Among Us is a video game accessible on computers and phone app stores that has recently gained popularity due to the exposure on the social media platform TikTok. Currently, the app has 228 thousand ratings with an average of 4.5 stars on the Apple app store. Among Us also has been featured in the number one spot in action and simulation game genres on the Apple app store for the past couple of weeks.
AOC recently went on Twitch and streamed her playing with popular players including Corpse Bride. She streamed to reach out to a different, and younger demographic of voters, but ended up staying after enjoying her time on the stream. Like AOC many users have joined and continued to play the game, gaining downloads for Among us across all app stores.
The game itself has a simplistic layout with self-explanatory directions and rules. Players are put onto a space ship where they are expected to finish a given amount of tasks. While in space there are up to three “imposters” or players who slowly kill off the crewmates through sabotaging tasks or killing the other players. Crewmates can report bodies and vote on who is believed to be the imposter. If the imposters successfully kill off all the crewmates they win, if crewmates vote out the imposters the crewmates win. The games are short and quick and can allow up to ten players at a time.
There are many different features in the game that promote playing with friends or meeting other players from around the world. At the beginning of the game, there is the option to invite other people through a code, this code allows anybody to join the specific match rather than joining random matches.
Wren Knehans began playing Among Us only a few weeks ago. Wren uses the code feature often to invite her friends to play. “I like that I can join a game with my friends by sending a generated code in our group chat so that we can all play together and it’s not always random strangers.”
Players can also use a chat feature to talk in between rounds during voting. Alissa Perkins an MU student uses the chat feature to help her teammates out “The chat feature is great because you don’t have to speak or you can, but when you do it’s not expected of you to be formal. I don’t like that you have to type sideways when you use iPhone, but it’s a great feature otherwise.”
Among Us has become a best-selling free app on app stores allowing players from all levels of gaming expertise to explore the world of online games. AOC only joined the game to promote the upcoming election but she ended up promoting one of the fastest-growing video games of the past couple months.