It’s not surprising to see a game seemingly appear out of nowhere and suddenly everyone wants to try it, thanks to Twitch and streamers. ‘Fall Guys,’ ‘Among Us,’ or even ‘Fortnite’ owe their fame, even if it’s often overnight, to their status as “the trendy video game.” Now it’s the turn of ‘Only Up!’, a title full of frustrating bugs and based on climbing as high as possible, which is experiencing its five seconds of fame (and making the most of it).
Always up
The game was released on Steam on May 24th with modest intentions (priced at around 7 euros during sales), but barely a month later, it had already surpassed 250,000 Twitch views across over 11,000 channels simultaneously, and the numbers kept rising. All the Spanish streamers have played it, from Ibai to Rubius, and even TheGrefg. For a few days, the frustration caused by such a simple game has captivated the entire community in a time that everyone assumed would be dominated by ‘Final Fantasy XVI.’
It makes sense: a game that causes frustration, which in turn can lead to exaggerated screams and various reactions. It’s like Valhalla for Twitch, which greatly appreciates extremes. Keep in mind that the game doesn’t have save points, so if you fall and fail to grab onto one of the protruding platforms, you have to start from scratch again, much to the amusement of the chats and the terror of the streamers.
The game truly delivers on its promise: you start at the bottom, and your objective is to reach the top while navigating through a stage filled with obstacles and bugs that make it challenging to control your jumps. It’s pure absurd tension in a game that could have easily been forgotten, but instead, it has climbed its way up to becoming one of the top 50 best-selling games on Steam in no time. They have definitely made a more than sufficient return on their investment.
The beauty of the internet is that you never know what the next big thing will be: today it’s a game about reaching the highest point and uncovering the secret ending, which some can achieve in just 15 minutes through insane speedruns. Tomorrow, it could be something entirely different. The key is to allow ourselves to be surprised and keep moving forward, always aiming higher, no matter how absurd it may seem.
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