From jobs, to sporting events, to hanging out with friends, quarantine has limited us a lot. For me, that last thing has been a real downer–the limitations and restrictions on being around friends and other people. But over this quarantine, something has arisen, a game called “Among Us.”

Among Us is an online multiplayer game, played on a computer or mobile device. The game is very similar to the popular card game mafia. In Among Us, there are usually 10 players, all on a spaceship. Eight of the people playing get the role of Crewmate, and their goal is to roam around the spaceship, completing simple tasks. The other two players are Imposters. The Imposters have one goal: kill the crewmates. 

The game itself is much more complicated, with different strategies and tactics being employed, but the basic outline of the game is really all you need to know about it. The game has had a much bigger impact on the social scene than the competitive scene. By this, I mean that Among Us has affected the casual players who do it for fun and or with their friends than the side of video games that is very competitive where people even do it professionally.

The thing about Among Us (at least on the computer) that makes it great, is that there is voice chat. This fun, yet intense strategy game can quickly become a screaming match of one friend accusing another, and that friend defending himself and accusing someone else. And then, at the end of the game, it turns out they were both wrong, and everyone laughs it off and queues up another game.

Among Us has boomed since quarantine, going from 6,000 players in July 2020, to over 400,000 in late September, a 400,000 player leap in the span of three months. Creators from different platforms including YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch have jump started their careers with the playing of this game. The game is currently the most popular game on Twitch (the most popular live streaming service in the U.S.), with well over 100,000 viewers at all times. 

As much as Among Us is a strategy game that many people take quite seriously, the game has adjustable settings allowing for a multitude of creative gamemodes to be created and played.. Lots of players throw the traditional rules out the window, and create their own rules and ways to play.

A very large community has blossomed around the game, with people discussing everything from who the best players are, to what the funniest strategies are, to what combination of cosmetics looks the best. No matter what the topic is, or how obscure it is, the members of this community will discuss it, and will have fun discussing it.

Video games have been on the scene for the past 20 plus years, and they will continue to rise. As much as many people are disdainful of them, and how they aren’t what they used to be, it is impossible not to concede the fact that video games have brought people together in a very unique way during this unprecedented event of a pandemic. Among Us has been that game. Communities have been formed, friendships formed (and broken), new creators discovered, Among has been a lone bright spot in the horrible year that has been 2020.