Among Us: A Global Mega-Hit Sparks the Revival of Party Games(1)
Tags: gamedev
Published: 2020-11-12 09:09:26

Among Us Is Taking the World by Storm with Real-Time Voice Chat, Sparking the Revival of Party Games.

Influenced by the stay-at-home economy worldwide, this year has seen an unexpected explosive growth of party games.
In August, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout exploded in popularity with over 1.5 million players in its first 24 hours and 2 million copies sold on Steam in its first week. The game generated 23 million viewing hours on Twitch in a single week. Following Fall Guys, another party game, namely Among Us, started to gain popularity. Up to now, Among Us has amassed over 40 million viewing hours and become the most-viewed video game on the platform. In August, the game’s peak players on Steam increased tenfold and the number of its daily active players is over 60 million. On mobile platforms, Among Us topped the download charts in Apple’s App Store in 63 countries, ranking among top 10 in over 180 countries.

1. Mega-hit Among Us boosts the popularity of party games
Among Us has been leading the Steam weekly sales chart for weeks. It is also the most popular game live broadcast on YouTube. This indie game was created two years ago. Through influencer marketing via live broadcast in countries including Korea, Brazil, England and America, Among Us marks the beginning of the global revival of party games.

Online party games skyrocketed in popularity in 2018. Multiplayer deduction games such as Werewolf games and script games received considerable attention. Similar to Werewolf games in tactics and style, Among Us is known as Space Werewolf or Space Kill to Chinese players. Unlike werewolf games, however, Among Us requires players to participate the game the whole time. It has more roles and focuses more on logic and strategy, which means it is more exciting and brain-mangling than Werewolf games.

In the game, all players are aboard a spaceship. The crew members must identify the imposter among them. There are two ways for the imposter to win the game, who can either sabotage the ship to stop the crew from returning back to earth or kill the crew members off one by one until the number of the crew is equal to or less than that of the imposters.

After a death of a crew member is reported, players can talk and vote. All players discuss and debate who they think the imposter is with their best logic and acting skills.  If voted off, the player cannot chat with others, but he or she will still be in the game to repair or sabotage the ship.
Among Us is not a turn-based game. During the game, completing tasks, chatting and voting take place alternately. There is no regular chatting session and things happen randomly. Compared to Werewolf games, Among Us offers different types of small tasks for players to complete when they are not chatting. These tasks are easy and they serve as a complementary part for the intense chatting and voting sessions, which enables players to reason logically and relax themselves at the same time.

Because of those small tasks, Among Us players are not likely to go AFK or be distracted. It is noticeable that Space Werewolf which is set in a spaceship takes each player’s experience into consideration. The design of adding small tasks into the game can provide players with an immersive gaming experience.