"Among Us" Surged in September

^{image source: Zaccrim/YouTube}

2020 has been a spectacular year for video game fans to discover new gaming experiences. Animal Crossing, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Fall Guys, and many other games have debuted to large viewerships this year. One of the biggest surprise hits, though, just may be the game Among Us.

Among Us is an online multiplayer social deduction game developed by an American indie game studio, Innersloth. Among Us is a space-themed game in which a crew of astronauts must complete tasks while trying to figure out who among them is an imposter, who is sabotaging their work and killing the other players.

The game has been available for about two years, but viewership of videos related to the game soared last month. There were over 4 billion views of videos related to Among Us in September.

While the number, itself, may be shocking, what’s also surprising is the variety of videos that are being uploaded related to this game. As one might expect, gameplay videos abound, but a range of other kinds of videos speak to the game’s impact on culture. Other videos include memes, comedic sketches, songs, DIY, and animation.

CG5’s video spans two of those categories. It’s an original animation and an original song.

In September, over 6% of all views for videos related to Among Us were for videos with some variation of “animation” in the title.

Viewers of these videos hail from all over the world.

While the United States makes up the single largest audience for this content, the Americas, in general, with Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina show up among the countries contributing the greatest number of views. South Korea’s presence in the list reflects the country’s early rising interest in the game. Creators like South Korea's 빅헤드 were uploading Among Us videos to YouTube as early as July.

In addition to seeing that videos related to Among Us were being uploaded by a broad range of creators representing different skills and interests, we also saw that these videos were uploaded by creators of all different sizes. In fact, many of the most-viewed videos related to Among Us have come from creators with lower numbers of subscribers. For example, Hornstromp Games had a little over 100K subscribers before the channel began uploading its Among US animated videos. Those videos are now among the most-viewed of all Among Us videos.

While smaller creators have been uploading these videos, the game is also represented at the other end of the spectrum with YouTube’s most-subscribed individual creator, PewDiePie, having uploaded Among Us videos.

Among Us shares something in common with many of the year’s most-viewed video games. The game provides an opportunity for players to socialize with others online while remaining socially distanced, which would make it the latest in a line of “pandemic games,” a list which would include Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. All of these games fostered a sense of social connection during a year in which that was a little more difficult to come by.