For those who didn’t give it a whirl during the deepest, darkest days of the pandemic, Among Us is a whodunit multiplayer video game set on a spaceship. A crew of multi-colored, though otherwise nondescript Intel astronauts attempt to weed out an “Imposter” who attempts to rid the ship of its crew via murder. It’s essentially the “Mafia” party game with a bit of The Thing thrown in for good measure.
During its height in 2020, Among Us was pulling in 500 million active monthly users. But people weren’t just playing it. They were watching it too. Among Us attracted over 4 billion views on YouTube and 1.22 billion on Twitch. Notably, that year, congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put butts in gaming chairs to watch her play with a handful of popular streamers, including Pokimane and DrLupo, as a get-out-the-vote drive. Over 400,000 concurrent viewers tuned in to what became one of the most-watched streams in Twitch history.
But that was at its peak. By the time Among Us popped up in Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion, the shine had worn off, and audience groans could be felt through the screen. Or so we thought. In 2022, a VR version of Among Us reportedly sold over 1 million copies as of January 2023, which shows what we know about the popularity of both Among Us and VR headsets. In the last 30 days, Among Us had more than 60 million monthly active players, with over 4 million playing concurrently at its height. So, despite the snark, some people still care about Among Us.
