Indie developers InnerSloth founded the online multiplayer murder-mystery mobile game, Among Us, for Android and iOS devices, they saw an average player count of 30 to 50 players simultaneously back in June 2018. Suddenly two years later they know that during COVID-19, Among Us was played by over 3.8 million players simultaneously around the world.
How did it all start?
The foremost trend of this game in users was driven especially by online content creators and youtube streamers in South Korea and Brazil. Following July 2020, Twitch streamer Sodapoppin made the game famous on Twitch. He was the first streamer who started.
In early September, more than 100 million users from all over the world downloaded Among Us, and its player counts touch peak at 1.5 million simultaneous users, the majority playing Among Us on their smartphones.
Many believe these five countries are responsible for growth: The United States, Brazil, Mexico, India, and Indonesia.
Various Avatar
As a player, you can select a set color, hat, pet, and skin combo that you can use whatever you like. The simplistic outfit gives you a jumping-off point to do whatever you want with your vision. Here’s a screenshot of a game where the player has a customized avatar:
Various Roles
1 Ghost
When you are voted out by crewmates or killed by an imposter. You will spend the remains of the game as a Ghost in the game. Unlike some hidden role games, when you are eliminated in Among Us, there are still many things for you to do. You can resume working on your tasks, and help to win your crewmates win the game.
Although you can just enjoy watching the activity and discussing theories with other ghosts in chat(this chat can’t be read by an alive player), it just isn’t as delightful as every other part of the game. This is especially real when you are one of the first ones out, not even getting a chance to help out the team.
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2 Guardian Angel
The Guardian Angel gets a little bit more to do as compared to normal ghosts. This role is given to the first crewmate to be killed off, and it feels like a consolation prize. The Guardian Angel can save another crew member’s life with the advantage of a temporary shield.
The imposter used to kill quickly. This might be difficult for him, As a guardian angel can give you protection right to stop a kill from an imposter.
And when the guardian angel does that it might irritate to Imposter. This role is one step-up from Ghost.
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3 Crewmate
Crewmate is the standard main role of the game that you’ll not likely be playing the majority of the time you play. And you get no unique powers. You often have nothing to do besides the tasks, once it completes all you need to do is find imposters and report them.
Although this isn’t the most thrilling role to have likened to others, it is a crucial part of the game. It is also incredibly heartwarming when you manage to figure out who the Impostor is. You can call the Emergency Meeting by simply pushing from the cafeteria, hoping you don’t get killed off before you reach the cafeteria and announce your discovery.
4 Scientist
Checking on everyone’s vitals is a tip for crewmates. It is mainly applicable when the Impostor has organized to kill someone in a very sheltered location. By checking vitals, Scientists can see who is still alive and who is not.
The Scientist carries a movable version of the vitals panel, so they don’t need to rush back to a specific room to check out this report. In order to, they need to perform tasks to charge this ability, so they cannot use it frequently. The Scientist will become a cherished player on the team but will also have quite the target on their back. Why? Know in jester role.
5 Engineer
Perfect role for the game because crewmates get confused between the imposter and the engineer. The Engineer is skilled in using the vents, just like the Impostors. This is extremely useful for both escaping Impostors quickly. But, there is a catch. They only have a limited time in the vents before they must recharge the ability.
This role is a lot of fun to play, giving you a simple but effective ability to make use of. Of course, it can add to devastation as Impostors could easily pretend to be the engineer themselves.
6 Impostor
The Impostor is the iconic role that most people want. A lot of excitement and pressure comes from playing this tricky role. Do you risk killing off someone with another player just around the corner? or at the place where no one else? Being the Impostor needs a lot of swift thinking and acting to succeed.
Sabotage will help whenever you like to kill someone or lock them. If you just shut down the light or sabotage the reactor that will easy to kill anyone. Being the Impostor and succeeding in misleading everyone else into that you are innocent and clear is one of the most satisfying feelings in Among Us.
7 Shapeshifter
The Shapeshifter is a new and exciting role to play as. Only an imposter can transform into any other player. This is ideal for framing someone for your immoral acts. Of course, there is always risk involved. It takes a few seconds to convert, and evidence is always left behind. The shapeshifter really demands you to mix up your typical Impostor tactics.
8 Evil/nice Guesser
The Guesser can eliminate players only during the meeting, by guessing their role. If the guess is wrong, the Guesser dies itself. The host can set how many players can be shot per game. The guesses Impostor and Crewmate are only right if the player is part of the corresponding team and has no special role. They can only shoot during voting time. So it’s quite important to keep self role private and not to declare it.
9 Bounty Hunter
The Bounty Hunter is assigned to the impostor, that continuously gets bounties. The imposter gets a new target after the end of every meeting and after a certain amount of time. If the Bounty Hunter kills their target, their kill cooldown will be less than usual. Killing a player that’s not their current target will result in an increased kill cooldown.
10 Jester
The Jester does not have any tasks. They win the game as a solo if they get succefull get his self voted out during a meeting. Players did not rely on any other player to win a game just keep themself safe.
11 Jackal
The Jackal is part of an extra team that tries to kill all the other players. The Jackal’s has no tasks and can eliminate Impostors, Crewmates, and Neutrals. The Jackal (if allowed by the host) can select another player to be their Sidekick. Creating a Sidekick dismisses all tasks of the Sidekick and counts them to the team Jackal. The Sidekick loses their current role (except if they’re a Lover, then they play in two teams). The Jackal can also enable Impostors to be their Sidekick but, depending on the options the Impostor will either really turn into the Sidekick and leave the team Impostors.
12 Sheriff
The Sheriff has the power to kill Impostors. If they try to kill a Crewmate, they die instead.
*There are plenty more roles but popular streamers and gamers are likely to play above 12 roles.
Reasons behind the outstanding growth of Among Us
By smashing down the core of the game, the reasons why Among Us accumulated popularity can be identified easily:
- The game is an open source free-to-play with in-app purchases for cosmetic customizations.
- Comfortable for anyone to spectate and has straightforward rules.
- There is no barrier to entry as the game is playable on hardware that everyone already owns. This also makes it very easy to convince a friend to play with you.
- Each round is consumable in quick bursts. It has a quick start, a middle, and a conclusive end.
- Online streamers are using it to make more content together and earn money from their streams via super chat.
- It is easy to consume the gameplay as a viewer, and shouting out what you think in the chat is easy, making it a pretty viral interaction.
