How Among Us has become one of the most successful and important games of 2020

Among Us has quickly become one of the most popular games on Twitch. With nearly 31 million hours watched during the month of August, it emerged as a titan in the streaming landscape. This was mainly due to the game’s ability to bring together widespread swaths of streaming personalities at a time, creating crossovers between streamers and communities on a scale like never before.

Thanks to its “streamability,” Among Us became an overnight triumph and can most definitely be considered one of the most successful games of 2020, despite its 2018 release. And as we progress through the summer and into the fall, it’s becoming more and more clear that Among Us can easily be considered one of the most successful and important games of the year.

Like any game in the modern era, success on Twitch is a pivotal part of how the game is received in a greater sense. If the title has a place in the sphere of content creation, it’s more likely to get off the ground and achieve greater things in the long run. When it comes to Among Us, there’s boundless content to be created. The game has found a home on Twitch in the arms of some of the most popular streamers on the platform. Over the course of the last month, an average of nearly 500 channels on Twitch have streamed Among Us on a daily basis, according to TwitchTracker. In the past seven days alone, that figure has skyrocketed to well over 1,000 individual channels. 

If you were to think of any relatively popular streamer, chances are they’ve played Among Us at some point in the last 30 days. The game has become such a massive, spontaneous achievement that everyone on Twitch has hopped on the bandwagon—and the snowball effect surrounding the game has been momentous. Undoubtedly, Among Us has emerged as one of the most popular games of the year, propelled entirely by organic exponential growth. But it wasn’t always this way. 

At the back end of the summer, Among Us has risen to a level of popularity that couldn’t have been predicted by any metric. In fact, if you were to look back to June, just 60 days ago, Twitch only had 14 channels dedicated to streaming the game. Back then, an average of just 174 viewers spent time watching Among Us on a monthly basis. 

Now, the game leaves marks like those far in the dust. Just this past week, an average of nearly 80,000 viewers tuned into Among Us streams on Twitch, amassing a total of over 13 million hours watched across the platform. As the game steamrolls its way into the month of September, its popularity continues to grow. Of course, the 45,000-percent increase in viewership from June to August is unsustainable, but with 190,000 concurrent viewers tuning into Among Us on Sept. 1, the game is proving that it’s already off to a hot start this month. There’s still plenty of room for growth and the Among Us hype train is showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. In the middle of July, with the summer already halfway in the books, Among Us picked up steam out of nowhere, becoming the sensation of the summer with ease. 

Now, the acclaimed party game has grown to a point where the impeccable viewership numbers it boasts don’t even properly do it justice. As Among Us grows more and more each day, it swells with a fruitful abundance of star-studded streams fueled by bountiful simplicity. 

The beauty of Among Us lies entirely in its ability to bring together some of the biggest names on Twitch in crossover events the platform hasn’t necessarily seen before in terms of scale and uniqueness. Never before has the entirety of the Twitch community been able to see some of the biggest names in livestreaming come together through a medium like Among Us. Whether it’s Hasan Piker linking up with xQc or Sodapoppin crossing paths with Imaqtpie, it’s becoming obviously clear that Among Us is allowing some of the most integral names in the scene to come together and interact in an extremely unique environment. 

Perhaps that’s what’s most intriguing about Among Us. Sure, the game is great, but it’s totally reasonable to suggest that it’s found so much success on Twitch because of its ability to bring people together. Additionally, beyond Among Us serving as the meeting ground of Twitch’s most popular creators, the massive streaming culture upon which it built its overnight empire has inspired countless individuals to try out the game for themselves. 

In the past 30 days, sales figures for Among Us have skyrocketed on Steam. In recent times, an average of approximately 80,000 people has been banking time on Among Us on a daily basis, with hundreds of thousands more owning the game and playing it intermittently.

Anyone can jump right in and start having fun with Among Us—that’s what’s making it so successful when it comes to sales. The three major factors of simplicity, availability, and popularity have made the game an instant success—and the developers at Innersloth are already working on a sequel.  

Perhaps the reasoning behind its astronomical sales figures is the game’s relatively low $5 price point. Without question, Among Us is one of the most popular “bang-for-your-buck” games on the market right now. The game’s intrigue spans far beyond its premise. The underlying and contributing components of expansive entertainment, an extremely generous asking price, and the prospect of mingling with friends in a fun and appealing setting have all made Among Us an unprecedented success. 

Of course, it’s entirely possible that Among Us goes the way of so many other games on Twitch. Within a few weeks, we could see the title’s viewership numbers and overall popularity decline just as quickly as they rose.

But don’t count on it.

As the year treads on, it wouldn’t be totally out of this world to expect Among Us to continue its reign of dominance over Twitch and the landscape of casual gaming as a whole. 

In a year where so many unexpected social events have upended our way of life, Among Us is a welcome source of comfort that allows people to gain a sense of social interaction during these unprecedented times. Although the most important game of 2020 was released nearly two years ago, it’s here now when the world needs it the most. Among Us is a pillow for all of us to fall back on, whether we’re watching our favorite streamers play with each other or we’re partaking in the action with friends of our own. 

And as the world searches for a place to gather safely and responsibly, perhaps an alien spaceship well above the stratosphere is the most incredible meeting spot of all.