What genre is Among Us best known as on Wikipedia?

Among Us is best known on Wikipedia as a social deduction game.

That genre label describes a game built around hidden roles, deception, discussion, and deduction. Most players are Crewmates, who complete tasks and try to identify the Impostors. Impostors look like ordinary Crewmates but secretly eliminate them and sabotage the team. Meetings and votes turn player observations, alibis, and suspicions into the central gameplay.

Among Us is also commonly described as a party game, and both labels are reasonable descriptions of its design. However, social deduction is the more specific genre answer among the choices. Racing, tower defense, and battle royale do not describe the game’s core structure: there are no racing laps, no base-defense waves, and no last-player-standing arena format.

The game’s design was influenced by Mafia and the science-fiction horror film The Thing. Although Among Us launched in 2018, its popularity surged in 2020 as streamers and YouTubers made its discussions and betrayals widely visible.