“Among Us” is a murder mystery like game that was made 2018 and developed by game developer Inner Sloth. For those who don’t know how to play “Among Us” basically you are placed in a group with 10 other players or “crewmates” however there’s one to three imposters in the group so it’s up to you and your team to find out who the imposter is before you are outnumbered. “Among Us” has lately been growing in popularity the past few months with nearly 400 thousand downloads on Steam despite coming out in 2018, but why now after all this time? 

           One reason is thanks to Twitch! In July of 2020 a popular Twitch streamer named Sodapoppin played “Among Us” which introduced it to his viewers. Eventually other popular streamers began to play this game like Pokimane and Ninja. With thousands of people watching the streamers play this game it wouldn’t be hard to believe they would try the game themselves and as more streamers play, more people try it out.

           Another reason is how easily accessible Among Us is. It’s only $5 on Steam and free on mobile so it doesn’t cost much for a person to download the game and play with their friends. Also with it’s low graphics you can play on low end devices and don’t need anything fancy. It is also important to note that the characters in “Among Us” look similar to those of Fall Guys which is also a very popular game.

            Final reasons for Among Us being popular now is because of meme culture. Not only has “Among Us”  been used as meme templates with “Dead Body Reported” or “Emergency Meeting” there have been hundreds of Among Us memes on the internet which may spark the curiosity of people who’ve never heard of the game. Then there’s the fact that InnerSloth also published the Henry Stickmin games which have also sparked in popularity within a few months so it would be most likely fans of the Henry Stickmin games have stumbled upon “Among Us” and decided to play.