Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's fourteenth district, played Among Us with a whole host of internet personalities, and the response was incredible.
An avid League of Legends player, Ocasio-Cortez had never played Among Us before. In the game, players are randomly assigned the role of a crewmate or an impostor on a spaceship or space station. Crewmates will complete tasks like connecting wires or filling fuel tanks, while the impostor(s) will pick them off one by one. When a body is discovered, the crewmates come together to discuss who the likely suspect is, and the impostor attempts to avoid blame.
It's the game of the moment, and the politician wanted to jump into the fun and encourage people to vote in the upcoming U.S. election. Content creators like Hasan Piker, Pokimane, Dr Lupo, Hbomberguy, Disguised Toast, Moistcr1tikal, Myth, Mxmtoon, and Jacksepticeye joined Ocasio-Cortez, as well as Ilhan Omar, fellow representative for Minnesota's fifth district. In total, Ocasio-Cortez reached a respectable 439,000 concurrent viewers on her own Twitch channel, and as a result, she holds the record for third-most concurrent viewers on an individual streamer's channel ever on Twitch.
Her pals added another 200,000 viewers on their channels, so the number of people who tuned into Ocasio-Cortez's games is actually around 600,000. That's an incredible figure, especially considering the streams from U.S. senator Bernie Sanders and president Donald Trump pulled in about a thousand viewers each. Moreover, Ocasio-Cortez didn't interrupt her gameplay to iterate the importance of voting or her own party's politics. The chat bot occasionally appeared to remind viewers to vote, and at the end of the stream, she explained how voting plans work, how to support progressive candidates, and encouraged those present to "participate in this election and save our democracy."
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As for the chat itself, there were a number of hostile comments which were moderated from the log very swiftly. However, mentions of President Trump, "MAGA," or critiques of socialism were allowed, though it appeared as though the viewers were politically aligned for the most part. It is certainly an interesting move for politicians to engage with these platforms to access new audiences, or promote their policies. But, Ocasio-Cortez was only interested in trying out Among Us, after the buzz the game has gotten, and it is perhaps this transparency that enabled the stream to reach such heights.
Featured Image Credit: InnerslothTopics: Mobile Games, Among Us