US New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, AOC, shocked the internet by playing Among Us on twitch, gaining 500,000 views while playing with popular streamers last week. 

Among Us is an indie space game where up to 10 players fight against each other to figure out the killers among them all, called imposters. The innocent players must solve the mystery of whos imposter, while the imposters must remain undetected among the crowd. It gained millions of new players this summer, as a fun mid-pandemic game. “Maybe it’s the cute graphics and tiny, faceless beans that make up the world of Among Us that inspires these great scenarios,” Cash Marshall, of game magazine Polygon says. “Maybe it’s just because we’re living in 2020, a year where I can always do with unhinging my entire jaw and damning an entire space expedition. Among Us acts as kind of a good release valve during these stressful times,”

With the popularity of Twitch streamers, kids, and regular people it was destined to be known amongst politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who tweeted before her game “Anyone wants to play Among Us with me on Twitch to get out the vote? (I’ve never played but it looks like a lot of fun).” Because of this, she was set up to stream on October 20th, with half a million people tuning in to her fun with other streamers online.

By playing this game, AOC had managed to appeal to her already young audience and do what most politicians haven’t. “They looked like completely normal people,” Joshua Rivera from The Guardian says. “They were having fun, accusing each other of being the impostor, cheering when they won, shouting about how they knew all along when an impostor was finally revealed.” During the stream, she stayed away from political topics, mainly enjoying the game with friends and talking with the viewers.

High School Students even enjoyed her gameplay, holding the same thoughts as Rivera. “I think it’s really cool that AOC was playing Among Us, a lot of people view most politicians as villains,” Akshitha Yulekati, a senior from SWHS says. “Not everyone can relate to the men running this country, so its comforting to know there’s someone representing us in the government who is somewhat ‘normal’, can connect with a lot of people, and be up to date with pop culture.” 

AOC hopes to play again with her twitch friends and viewers soon, loving the contrasts of being an imposter and finding the corrupt killers in Among Us.