Among Us is the hit social deduction game that saw its user numbers explode over global lockdowns caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Made by independent developers Innersloth, few could have predicted its runaway success and mass popularity, as well as its entry into mainstream culture.
Obscure for two years after its initial release in 2018, the game only took off in earnest over the later months of 2020, from August onwards.
Nearly two years later, interest in the game has dropped significantly.
Google Trends illustrates the dramatic decline in search interest, as the game appears to fall into relative obscurity again.
Ultimately, this piece will aim to see what lessons can be learnt from Among Us, and if its decline was truly inevitable.
So, to begin with, we need to look at how the game first became so massively popular.
Surges in popularity were initially driven by Twitch, resulting from large channels playing the game in front of myriads of viewers.
Until this point, the game had a very small but persistent user base.
Soon afterwards, it took off in earnest, providing a way for social groups separated by lockdowns to socialise together.
Several months later, the game was still very popular, with it having a massive user base - everyone probably knows someone who is, or was, a loyal Among Us player.
Yet that attention has all but dried up, on the school ground at least, and the google trends showing the drop in interest worldwide.
But this fall in popularity was not without reason.
Among Us was not predicted to ever be so popular, so the developers had begun work on a sequel, Among Us 2, which had to be abandoned as a result of the sudden surge in users of the original game.
Keeping the game running meant that the old base game engine had to be adapted to support the new features.
Although this meant the game could now hold a cornucopia of new content, not all of it was as welcome an addition as it might have appeared when proposed.
Entirely new content, such as the Airship map, was a welcome addition to allow the game to feel less claustrophobic when playing with large groups.
Just as new content has improved the game, other content has worsened the overall playing experience.
Extra restrictions, such as user accounts for online play, and making younger accounts use quick chat picked from limited options, will be annoying if you want to just play the game.
Consequently, the app has been transformed from a party game into a mini social media service.
This has diluted the experience to an extent, preventing the game from being what it should be: just a game.
Even without these issues, the game has been plagued by cheating and hacking, which ruins the game for everyone else in the lobby.
Dozens of other online games suffer from hacking issues, so it can't be said that the fall of Among Us is because of cheating; so the game's decline is because it has been extended beyond its capabilities.
Ending with the lessons learnt here, we see that the main issue was trying to expand from a social deduction game by overcomplicating the rules, and making the intial setup more arduous.
Nearly every software created should heed this warning against the perils of not being intuitive, easy to use, or user friendly.
Do try and find the time to play the game with some friends, though - once you've got past the initial setup, and taught everyone the rules, Among Us is still well worth a play!
And if you want to know the true legacy of Among Us, go back through this article and take the first letter of every sentence.