Among Us
Documents about Among Us
Plus: Probing Dave the Diver's Sleeper Hit Origins
This analysis examines the performance of recent PC and console releases, focusing on the unexpected success of Dave the Diver and broader market trends across Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.
- Major publishers are successfully adopting indie aesthetics to drive engagement, exemplified by Nexon’s sub-brand Mintrocket achieving 4,000 concurrent users and over 2,300 overwhelmingly positive reviews for Dave the Diver.
- Football Manager 2023 demonstrated strong market demand by reaching 72,000 concurrent users on Steam during the early November 2022 period.
- Sonic Frontiers outperformed expectations in its first three days, recording 19,200 peak concurrent users on Steam and an estimated 120,000 owners across PlayStation and Xbox.
Plus: What Upcoming Steam VR Games Are the Hottest?
Analysis of Steam VR market trends reveals a significant disparity between hardware adoption and software enthusiasm on the platform.
- Steam VR software momentum is weak, with only two VR-tagged titles appearing in the top 200 most-hyped unreleased games out of 80,000 analyzed apps.
- The 'VR' tag ranks poorly in industry interest, placing 235th in total hype and 288th in median hype out of 459 total tags.
- Meta Quest 2 users account for nearly 50% of the Steam VR hardware base, yet the Steam ecosystem struggles to convert this hardware adoption into software enthusiasm.
In-depth: How Dread Hunger Hit 1 Million Sales
Dread Hunger, a social deduction survival game, achieved one million sales by successfully blending complex social gameplay with high-retention survival mechanics.
- Dread Hunger reached one million sales by leveraging a massive, organic surge of interest from the Chinese market, which offset a slow start in Western regions.
- The game's success in China was driven by a cultural affinity for social deduction games, allowing it to capture players seeking a more sophisticated experience than existing mobile adaptations.
- Dread Hunger achieved high player retention, with median playtimes of seven to eight hours and averages reaching thirty hours.
What Does Epic's Big Bang Mean for the Future of Fortnite?
The expansion of Fortnite through the Big Bang event marks a strategic pivot for Epic Games, transitioning the title from a monolithic battle royale into a multi-genre ecosystem.
- Fortnite has transitioned from a battle royale into a multi-genre ecosystem by integrating LEGO Fortnite, Rocket Racing, and Fortnite Festival to compete directly with platforms like Roblox and Minecraft.
- The 'Big Bang' event drove Fortnite to an all-time high of 11.6 million concurrent users, with the platform recording 100 million unique players in November 2023.
- Player behavior analysis indicates that Fortnite’s audience prioritizes social and cooperative experiences, as evidenced by their migration to titles like Among Us and Lethal Company during server downtime.
Today Streaming Is Crucial for Game Discovery, Understanding Gamers and How That Can Translate Into Sales
Streaming platforms have become the primary engine for game discovery, fundamentally shifting how publishers reach consumers in an increasingly saturated market.
- Streaming is now the primary driver of game discovery, with over 50% of UK adults aged 18–54 reporting that viewing a game significantly impacts their purchasing decision.
- The correlation between streaming and sales is high, as evidenced by the game Among Us, which saw its Twitch viewership explode to nearly 600,000 views after being featured by top streamers, directly resulting in a surge of sales on Steam and PlayStation.
- Influencer marketing via streaming significantly outperforms traditional digital advertising, which suffers from a 99.53% failure rate in inspiring consumers to click and take action.
Noble Fates' Stealth Success, Examined
This analysis examines the performance of various PC and console titles during the final weeks of 2021, with a specific focus on the unconventional success of the fantasy kingdom simulator Noble Fates.
- Noble Fates achieved over 1,000 concurrent users and a 'Very Positive' rating on Steam despite launching its store page only two weeks before release, challenging the necessity of long-term wishlist accumulation.
- The success of Noble Fates suggests that high-quality titles in popular genres can bypass traditional marketing cycles through rapid organic discovery and unconventional tactics like using a custom Steam curator page as a landing site.
- Hardcore niche titles demonstrated strong market resilience in late 2021, with Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnought maintaining over 1,000 concurrent users.
Plus: Q1 on Steam - Let's Witness the Hotness
This analysis provides a comprehensive outlook on the Steam and console gaming markets for the first quarter of 2022.
- Steam's Q1 2022 market was defined by high-profile releases including Elden Ring, God of War, and Monster Hunter Rise, alongside the successful Western launch of the MMO Lost Ark.
- The tactical shooter Ready Or Not emerged as a significant sleeper hit in late 2021, achieving a 94% positive review rating despite low pre-launch visibility.
- Indie developers face a 'Game Pass or bust' environment on Xbox, where paid download charts are dominated by viral hits like Among Us rather than traditional indie titles.
Top 10 Games in Argentina: H1 2021
The mobile gaming market in Argentina during the first half of 2021 demonstrated a notable shift in consumer preferences, characterized by a strong appetite for both established global titles and emerging children-focused games.
- In H1 2021, Garena Free Fire and Roblox were the top two games by revenue in Argentina, though their earnings decreased by 19% and 25% respectively compared to the previous period.
- Genshin Impact and Toca Life World both doubled their revenues in H1 2021 compared to H2 2020, with Toca Life World, a kids' game, notably entering Argentina's top 10 grossing games.
- Among Us maintained its top position by downloads in H1 2021 but experienced a significant 75% decrease in downloads, while Garena Free Fire, also a top download, saw a smaller 29% decline.
How to Get Shoppers to Stop Waiting and Just Buy Your Game Already
The primary objective of this analysis is to provide game developers with actionable strategies to convert passive wishlists into active sales.
- Game developers should expect a maximum conversion rate of approximately 20% of wishlists during the first week of release, leaving a significant majority of interested potential buyers to be captured later.
- Limited-time sales are the most effective tool to combat procrastination; developers should explicitly communicate the sale's end date and send reminders at the 24-hour and 3-hour marks before the discount expires.
- Marketing assets, particularly store capsules, should clearly display the discount size and a strong call to action to maximize the impact of FOMO (fear of missing out).
Trust Nobody
The release of the Impostors game mode within Fortnite serves as a case study for the growing power imbalance in the video game industry.
- Epic Games released a new Fortnite mode called Impostors that is a direct clone of the game Among Us, which was developed by the small studio Innersloth without any prior collaboration or communication.
- The release of Impostors highlights a power imbalance in the industry where large corporations like Epic Games utilize their scale to replicate the successful mechanics of smaller, independent developers.
- People Can Fly reported that the game Outriders has yet to generate profit for the developer, despite publisher Square Enix reporting 3.5 million launch players and the title's inclusion on Game Pass.
Superstar Session: The Future is Cross Platform
The gaming industry is undergoing a significant shift as player demand for seamless, cross-platform multiplayer experiences intensifies.
- 96% of surveyed developers in 2021 identified scalable cross-platform solutions as a critical factor for the success of multiplayer games.
- The industry is transitioning toward a 'build once, deploy everywhere' model, allowing developers to manage mobile, PC, and console releases from a single codebase.
- Successes like Among Us and Genshin Impact have validated cross-play as a viable and highly demanded feature driven by player desire for social connectivity across hardware.
Abundance and Joy: How Is This Wave of Over-investment in Games Going to End?
The global gaming industry is currently experiencing a period of significant over-investment and market "froth," driven by cheap capital, high-profile public listings, and the entry of non-endemic tech giants.
- The gaming industry is currently experiencing a period of market 'froth' driven by cheap capital, exemplified by high-profile valuations such as Epic Games at $28.7 billion and AppLovin’s $28.6 billion IPO in early 2021.
- Historical market cycles, including the 1980s Atari collapse, the 2000s MMO purge, and the 2010s social gaming decline, indicate that prioritizing financial engineering over audience needs consistently leads to industry-wide corrections.
- The current influx of capital risks shifting industry focus from creative entertainment to corporate acquisition strategies, potentially leading to brand dilution.