Among Us News

Among Us was the seventh-biggest game of the quarter

Among Us is five dollars on Steam, and free on mobile. It was made by a tiny team, launched in 2018, and existed in near-complete obscurity for most of the two years since release. Now it's played by streamers, politicians, and everyday gamers alike, and according to a new report, it's the seventh-biggest game of the quarter where it got big.

Among Us reached the seventh-highest player count among console and PC players in the three months from July through September, according to Mat Piscatella of analyst group NPD. 69% of those players (nice) were under 24. (The devs have occasionally provided charts showing how the numbers break down across PC and mobile, too.)

NPD primarily tracks sales data in the US, and this quarter represented the highest quarterly spending on videogames in history. $11.2 billion was spent on videogames in the US this quarter, up 24% from the same period in 2019. The biggest-selling game of the stretch was NBA 2K21, based on dollar sales - and that's not even counting the money 2K is pulling in on microtransactions.

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Steam Global Top Sellers for the Week ending 8 November 2020

View more information and data on SteamDB

New Among Us patch and roadmap reveals new features and map

Among Us has been one of the video game success stories of 2020. Two years after a quiet launch in 2018, Among Us has become one of the most popular party games available, topping the Steam sales for consecutive months. Of course, this means developer Innersloth has ramped up development and support for the deception-based party game. The latest patch has been released, adding new features and improvements to Among Us. Innersloth has also shared a roadmap that includes a new map upon other additions.

Changes and additions in the new Among Us patch:

Added Anonymous Voting option

All votes appear as grey

Added Task Bar Modes

Always mode works like normal

Meeting mode only updates the bar during meetings

Invisible mode removes the task bar entirely

MIRA: Comms sabotage clears the security logs

Added symbols to fix wires task

Added cosmetics to meeting screen

Various bug fixes

The details of the update were posted to Innersloth’s official website. It’s here that the devs also talk about the roadmap for future content. Among Us will be getting a new map, which is themed around Henry Stickmin, another game from the Innersloth catalogue. This won’t be the first time the games crossover, as the Among Us crewmates can be found throughout different levels in Henry Stickmin.

The developers are also planning to add an accounts feature by December. This will be helpful in tracking player behavior and keeping a list of friends. Other plans include further accessibility support in the form of new localization and colorblind modes.

If you’re one of the millions of people that’ve been playing Among Us over the last couple of months, you could probably use some tips on becoming the best crewmate or impostor that you can be. Luckily, Shacknews has an Among Us guide hub full of helpful articles on Innersloth’s party game.

Among Us patch notes announce free new map "currently looking bigger than Polus"

If you're a fan of social deduction games, you'll probably have been getting stuck into plenty Among Us with your pals of late. Some recent beta testing indicated a key gameplay tweak was on the way - specifically, the ability to hide who's voted for who. Now, that update's come to the live game, along with a few other adjustments and announcements in a new set of patch notes - including an announcement of a brand-new map on the way.

Developer Innersloth has posted a blog on the multiplayer game's site announcing the "small patch and small roadmap". It is indeed a brief handful of tinkerings, but the changes are pretty key - such as the new "anonymous voting option", which means "all votes appear as grey" if you have that feature in play. While seemingly minor, it can make working out who's alright and who's sus in a given game a trickier task, throwing some more curveballs and surprises into the mix.

Alongside this, the notes detail there are some added task bar modes, giving you some more UI customisation options. Plus, the notes announce "comms sabotage clears the security logs" now, a bunch of bug fixes have landed, and two other additions are symbols for the wire fixing task and cosmetics to the meeting screen. Lovely stuff.

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Among Us beta guide

Wondering how to get access to the Among Us beta? If you're anything like us, you'll have invested hours into running around every nook and cranny of each of the Among Us maps, completing every task with the utmost efficiency; connecting wires with a flick of the wrist, shooting down meteors without a single wasted shot, and starting up the reactor at the same agonising pace as always. You may have even branched out into playing other social deduction games with your friends, putting everything you've learned about lying your socks off to good use.

If you've been playing Among Us for a while, you may be wondering what new content is on its way, and when we can expect Among Us updates to stir things up a little bit. Originally, Among Us developer InnerSloth had planned to start working on Among Us 2, starting from scratch to create an Among Us sequel with all the new features their adoring fans were looking for. However, now InnerSloth has decided to concentrate on the original game, gradually adding new Among Us updates as and when they're ready.

They've also set up an Among Us beta branch to test out upcoming changes to the game - and there are new Among Us settings being trialled in beta before they're released to the main client. If you want to dive in and try out these new features and settings for yourself, here's how to access the Among Us beta branch.

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