Eight Years Ago, a Small Indie Game Was Released and Eventually Took Over the World

Eight years ago, a very small social deduction game was released. While the response was generally positive, it wasn't until 2020, during the COVID-19 Pandemic, that the game soared in popularity and became a go-to way to pass the time, have fun, and maintain social distancing.

Today, June 15, 2026, is the eighth anniversary of the original mobile release of Among Us. Originally released in 2018, Among Us would see new popularity among content creators and social media influencers, and became one of the most downloaded games in history with more than 100 million downloads.

Among Us is a social deduction game in which one group of players are regular crewmates and must perform various tasks around a map. A second, smaller group of players are the impostors and must work together to kill all the crewmates and sabotage the tasks. After a corpse is found, a meeting is held in which players may provide clues to each other, deceive, make alliances, or stay quiet. A vote is then held to determine if no one should be eliminated or if the round should be skipped.

The game went under the radar for nearly two years before exploding in popularity, thanks in large part to streamers like MrBeast, Ninja, and PewDiePie providing entertainment from home.

The Guardian called Among Us, "the ultimate party game of the paranoid Covid era."

Over on Metacritic, Among Us is sitting at a solid 85 metascore, but the user score is less impressive at a 6.9. Critics widely praised the simplistic nature of the game and moving real-life social games online. Several critics and fans also compare the game to social strategy reality TV shows, like Survivor, Big Brother, and The Traitors.

Since its boom in popularity, the game has tapered off to just a niche audience, but the game is still popular enough to find matches at any given time of day and is often used as a party game because it is widely accessible on virtually all modern devices.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 15, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

2026 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.

This story was originally published June 15, 2026 at 12:29 PM.