Did hackers ruin public games in Among Us?

Among Us is still recovering from multiple waves of hackers ruining the game for others.

Hackers in Among Us were responsible for making public games dreadful to play. Players had to endure, as hackers spammed their chats, used hacks to reveal imposters, or simply made their imposters overpowered. Even though many are still playing Among Us, the game has seen a significant drop in its overall player count, and public games have been much harder to fill.

Public among us lobbies are terrible bro

— quis ❄️ (@youngblvcksoul) November 10, 2020

Public vs private games in Among Us

For most players, Among Us games are organized through some kind of third party app, like Discord. Once enough players have been gathered to play, someone hosts the game and shares the room code as other players pile in.

These can be through private Discord groups, any one of the various public Among Us Discord groups, or any other kind of group. But, regardless of what specifically is used to organize it, these games are still considered private games on Among Us.

Among Us games are only considered public when opened up in game, which allows players to search for games through the client to find rooms. However, some players have noticed that it has been harder and harder to find good public games in Among Us as of late. This has caused many players to either stop playing, or migrate to private games, following the annoying hackers that previously plagued public lobbies.

Is it even worth it to play public games?

public among us games are simply no fun

— 🌈Vanss (@vaannii11) November 6, 2020

All this raises the question of whether or not it’s even worth it to play in public lobbies. Public lobbies result in playing with unknown players, limits the players’ ability to infer patterns, and runs the inherent risk of encountering hackers, cheaters, or trolls.

Private games, by comparison, usually permit playgroups to make use of voice communication, thereby allowing players to bypass the game’s sluggish chat function. Private games are also the recommended way to play Among Us, according to the developers themselves.

But for anyone who doesn’t want to go through the hassle of organizing a game, public games allow them to quickly find a group and play.

While Among Us may still be going strong, it is unfortunate that the game’s public lobbies still suffer from so many issues. When accounts get added to the game, it will make public games more playable, especially when follow-up features like friends lists are integrated as well.

But for now, it might take awhile before players regain their trust in the wider public Among Us community.