Why is Among Us Not as Popular in 2024?

Among Us exploded onto the gaming scene in 2020, swiftly becoming one of the most played and streamed games in the world. However, Among Us has struggled to maintain that momentum going into 2023. The primary factors behind its declining popularity are:

• Repetitive core gameplay loop leading to boredom
• Very slow development velocity to add new content
• General decline in pandemic gaming tailwinds

Let‘s explore each of these reasons in more depth…

Repetitive Core Gameplay

Among Us attracted millions initially due to its fresh take on social deception gameplay. However, once the novelty wore off, many players realized how limited and repetitive the core gameplay loop was.

Without much variation in rules, roles, objectives or progression systems, matches tend to play out very similarly. This makes the game grow stale after a while according to many players:

"I loved Among Us for the first 20 hours or so. But it really is extremely repetitive – the deduction and discussions play out the same way every time."

This sentiment has led to boredom and falling retention rates. Among Us sees players losing interest faster than popular live service games like Fortnite or Apex Legends that constantly add new flavor and variety.

Slow Pace of Updates

What could help alleviate the repetitive gameplay? A frequent cadence of new content updates to refresh the formula – new mechanics, cosmetics, progression systems, and events.

But here Among Us is severely limited by only having a team of 3 developers at Innersloth working on the game. Compared to hundreds across dedicated studios for competitors, Among Us lacks manpower to match players‘ content demands.

This leads to update droughts of 6-8 months with little changing in the game. Such slow iteration fails to give lapsed players reason to return.

Below shows Among Us‘s much slower update pace compared to other major online multiplayer titles:

With so few developers and limited resources, it‘s unreasonable to expect Among Us to maintain interest through content at the same clip as AAA competitors. Players sense this lack of momentum and move on to greener pastures.

Declining Pandemic Gaming Tailwinds

Of course, Among Us did not explode into a household name by accident – it largely rode the rising tide of gaming‘s popularity during pandemic times.

Recent Newzoo research helps quantify gaming‘s growth through the pandemic:

• Daily time spent gaming grew 14% among US gamers in 2020
• European gamers added an extra weekly hour of game time in 2020
• Monthly active gamers on PC alone grew 25% from 2019 to 2020

Much of this growth has now receded as society returns to normalcy. Schools reopened, people returned to offices, and entertainment venues revived. This normalization means less ambient gaming time and engagement overall.

As people have ventured back outside and balanced gaming amidst busier schedules, mediocre live service games like Among Us suffer disproportionately. Why spend your reduced gaming hours on Among Us instead of an ever-evolving game like Genshin Impact or Clash of Clans?

Among Us lacks reasons to justify one‘s valuable attention against sturdier competitors. And so the player base downsizes further from its pandemic highs.

…

Given the above trends, Among Us will likely never reach the same dizzying highs of 2020. But hundreds of thousands still play daily, showing enduring fandom.

And Innersloth is determined to invest more resources into the game, doubling its team size to build Among Us out further. With enough added depth and variation, periodic boosts of renewed interest could arise.

Among Us catching lightning in a bottle again depends on Innersloth executing an ambitiously expanded roadmap. But for now, beset on all sides by both internal constraints and shifting external factors, the game‘s best days seem behind it. The social deduction genre will progress beyond Among Us onto future indie darlings.

Yet not all is lost – with 10 million daily players, Among Us won‘t fully fade away. But it likely won‘t reach even 1/10th of its peak ubiquity again either. Such is the trajectory of scrappy indie breakouts lacking enduring bedrock. The fire sputters as quickly as it began raging.

Conclusion

Thanks to repetitive gameplay, sluggish content cadence, and declining pandemic tailwinds, Among Us has fallen out of gaming primetime since its magical 2020 run. Daily players are down nearly 90% from their peak.

Still, millions enjoy the game. And an expanded dev team working on much-needed additions provides some hope of revival. But in all likelihood, Among Us will settle into a smaller but dedicated player base – the 15 minutes of mainstream fame have run their course.

The meteoric rise and fall of this humble social deception game perfectly encapsulates gaming‘s pandemic boom and parts of its subsequent normalization. Among Us arrived at the perfect time to capture lightning in a bottle. Alas that lightning flash has now faded, leaving mere rumblings of thunder behind.