Does player count matter in Among Us?

Many players have noticed that Among Us has seen a sharp drop in player count since its September peak of over 400,000 players on Steam, but does that really matter?

In the past 48 hours Among Us peaked at 169,877 players, a significant drop from where it sat just a few months ago. However, this drop doesn’t affect players nearly as much as it seems - something which is as true for Among Us as it is for many of the biggest multiplayer games around.

I feel like among us should be an exception because I remember reading something like before streamers completely boosted the player count of it the game was averaging like 20 players so it was less than relevant

— Garrett (@itssPrecept) November 18, 2020

Among Us player experience is barely affected by population over a certain size

Perhaps the single best analysis of how much population matters in multiplayer games was done by the YouTube channel Raycevick.

Summarized, his argument is that so long as players are able to find matches then the multiplayer experience is preserved. He further said that most games can actually sustain a fully functional multiplayer experience with far fewer players than most think.

It’s hard not to agree with the basic sentiment either. It seems even a modest drop in player count can often inspire cries of a game dying. However this is almost always exaggerated, or just outright incorrect.

That’s not to say that games can’t die. There certainly are multiplayer games which failed to sustain a big enough population to be playable, but the point at which a game ceases to be playable is not when it drops to “only” 10,000 players.

For Among Us specifically, the Steam player count is still enough to support tens of thousands of fully populated lobbies, and that doesn’t even account for the far greater number of players who play on mobile.

And yet, if Among Us saw its player count decline to the point of having just a few thousand players, it would still have enough players that anyone looking for a public game would still be able to find one with comparable ease.

I am so excited for thisAmong us is still so much fun so new maps will just make it even better, all we ned now s the higher player count https://t.co/Y7HSI4V3j3

— 🏳️‍🌈 Bon Pansky 🏳️‍🌈 (@BonPansky) November 18, 2020

Among Us isn’t the only game to thrive with low player counts

Even though Among Us supports over half a million players regularly, it used to have just a few hundred for most of its lifespan. Similarly, many smaller games have managed to develop thriving online communities with small player counts.

Even the other free space themed crew vs. imposter game on Steam, Unfortunate Spacemen, has an average player count of just a few hundred players, and yet, it takes just a few seconds to find a game.

Games which require even fewer players can be sustained with an even smaller player count, with fighting games only needing two players for their multiplayer experience to be fully attainable.