How "Among Us" Sparked a New Wave of Social Gaming Blogs

If you were making YouTube content in 2020, you either played Among Us, collaborated with someone who did, or at the very least, watched countless playthroughs and seen all the memes coming out of it. It wasn’t just a game; it was a whole phenomenon everyone talked about. But what happened after the initial hype died down? The impact of Among Us didn’t just fade away—it fundamentally reshaped the way creators approached social gaming content.

The Among Us Effect: Why It Was Different

To understand why Among Us was successful, we need to understand its perfect timing. While the game itself was released in 2018, it didn’t become popular until 2020 when people were starving for social interactions the most. It offered us the Mafia-style game, where the players needed to deduct who is the impostor trying to end them all. With loads of free time on our hands and not many social interactions, Among Us was something fun to play online with your buddies. Not only that, it became something fun to create and watch on YouTube.

YouTube gaming content, before 2020, was largely dominated by either solo games or games that involve competitive gameplay. Walkthroughs, challenge videos, lore videos reigned supreme. But Among Us forced collaboration. It was a game that wasn’t about skill (unless we talk about the skill of persuasion). The game was simple, which invited people who haven’t played much before, it was free to play, which invited even more people in.

This meant that the content focused on Among Us was more about the people playing it, not so much about a rather simple and straightforward gameplay. During that time, through Among Us, we saw the most unexpected collaborations on YouTube we wouldn’t see otherwise.

Suddenly, YouTube’s giants started collaborating with each other. Creators from different niches and with different channel sizes streamed the game together, which at the time was a lot of fun to watch. 

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The Rise of Social Gaming Blogs

Before Among Us, gaming blogs were often focused on patch notes, technical breakdowns, and straightforward game guides. But with Among Us, things changed. Instead of just telling players how to play, blogs began analyzing why players acted the way they did. Articles on deception tactics, effective communication strategies, and the psychology of lying started gaining a lot of traction. 

Some blogs took it further, offering:

• Case Studies on Iconic Plays – Breaking down high-profile games played by big creators, analyzing their strategy, and discussing what others could learn from them.
• Meta Shifts and Role Strategies – As the game evolved, blogs tracked which tactics were working and which ones were being countered by more advanced players.
• Cross-Platform Engagement – The best social gaming blogs didn’t just exist in isolation. They were actively referenced in YouTube videos, tweeted about by streamers, and discussed on Discord servers.
• Accidentally Good Strategies - Players shared their ‘accidental’ successes that later got adopted by more competitive players.

Why This Model Still Works Today

Though Among Us isn’t pulling in the same numbers it did in 2020, the content framework it created is still thriving. Look at games like Goose Goose Duck, The Outlast Trials, and Lethal Company, It Takes Two. Each of these has generated content that mirrors the Among Us model: social dynamics first, gameplay second.

This means there’s still massive demand for in-depth, well-researched gaming blogs that analyze the psychology and strategy of social games. If you’re a creator looking to build authority outside of YouTube, blogging about these games and constantly collaborating with other people is a great way to keep the engagement high even after trends shift.

Monetizing Social Gaming Blogs

The Among Us boom wasn’t just a fleeting trend—it was a case study in how social interaction can make for extremely entertaining content. The rise of gaming blogs around social deception titles proves that audiences crave more than just surface-level entertainment.

And if the next Among Us comes along? Be ready to turn its chaos into content.