It’s Here, It’s Real
Fortnite is no stranger to hosting unusual events. From concerts to movie tie-ins, the game’s atmosphere has been fundamentally linked to modern culture. But this… this is something else. Fortnite is now host to an Among Us style game of social deduction. If you’ve ever played Among Us, or seen one of the many videos of others playing it, you should feel right at home in its paranoid and chaotic mental battlefield.
If you’re just here for the Fortnite Imposters news, you can check out their official website, or just hop in blind. After all, the game is free-to-play, and the gamemode is live as we speak. No, this article will be about something much darker. If you were in tune with internet culture back when Among Us first exploded, you might already be getting flashbacks to the incessant references and that one shape that followed you everywhere you looked. If any of that sounds familiar, read on. We’re going to find out if those fears are justified in this hyper-serious, totally professional analysis.
Among Us memes have been on the downswing, slowly falling out of favor over time but never truly dying. A revival is certainly in the cards, but it would need some outside help to reclaim its throne. Fortnite is a bit older, and never hit the same heights as Among Us, but has remained a prominent fixture of gaming culture and discussion ever since its explosive rise to fame. A fusion of the two could certainly bring the help Among Us needs, but is Fortnite the right candidate?
A few possibilities exist:
This may just be a flash in the pan. People will go “oh, haha, Fortnite + Among Us funny meme yes”, make a couple memes for you to stumble into, and then move on. Historically, this is the cycle of most big Fortnite stories: few people reference the Ariana Grande concert, but that happened earlier this month. The gamemode’s existence in Fortnite will certainly boost Among Us’ visibility, but Fortnite alone can’t grant the meme any staying power. Among Us has undeniably sustained itself as a semi-relevant cultural fixture, but if it can only sustain that much engagement in the long-term, a boost is likely to be temporary,
This could also be even less relevant than expected. A fusion of two properties requires people to enjoy both ends, and while Among Us memes have certainly carved their niche, Fortnite hasn’t been as fortunate. It’s possible that the existence of Fortnite may actually decrease this meme’s relevance – assuming the venn diagram of “Among Us Meme Fans” and “Fortnite Meme Enjoyers” shows the overlapping area to be smaller than the Among Us section by itself.
Or, maybe, this is the start of something big. Maybe there will be some easter eggs within the gamemode for people to screenshot, share, and make memes out of. Maybe the gamemode is so enjoyable that it’ll see another boom on Twitch, which is what caused Among Us to grow in the first place. The only way to find out is to play it yourself…