Survival game Rust is making a surprise comeback as the number one game on Twitch after a long period of inactivity. The PC game has had a long development history; it released in early access back in 2013 and spent five years in that unfinished state before finally seeing a full release in 2018. Now that it's finally been completed, many are wondering what's next for the game. It had been planned for a console release last year, but after that was delayed, fans of the game are wondering when it might arrive on PS4 and PS5.
For years Rust has been held up as a standard example of the survival crafting genre. The PC market is rife with these games, and they encompass a variety of genres and tones. Conan Exiles focuses on the brutal fantasy world of the iconic barbarian, for example, while The Forest is a much more horror-oriented experience. Subnautica provides a very unique take on the experience by stranding the player on a flooded alien world; it's frequently hailed as one of the best games on Steam today. Rust, by contrast, is a comparatively standard survival crafting experience, which takes its claim to fame from the scope of tools and items the player can craft, as well as the multiplayer component, which lets fans scavenge and survive together.
Rust has been quietly scraping by for years now, but recently, it has seen a startling resurgence on Twitch. In recent days the obscure survival game topped the charts for most views on the streaming platform, beating out titans like Minecraft. At the time of this writing it's still sitting at a respectable second place, with 612k viewers to its name. The game owes this sudden resurgence to several big-name streamers who have suddenly expressed renewed interest in it thanks to content drops that are planned for January 7th. These major streamers have spent the past few days surviving online together and creating emergent stories through in-game interactions and RP.
The sudden success of Rust is strongly reminiscent of another prominent multiplayer game: Among Us. The space-based social deduction game saw a quiet, widely overlooked release in 2018, but exploded in popularity in 2020 thanks to prominent streamers playing online with their friends. Even though the game is two years old now, it's sure to go down in history as one of 2020's most defining titles and one of its best multiplayer games. It should be noted, however, that at the time of this writing Rust has a massive lead over Among Us in terms of viewer counts on Twitch.
It remains to be seen how long this remarkable Rust resurgence will last. The promised January 7th drops will surely be a boon for the survival game's longevity and player base. Of course, no online game stays famous forever. The colorful battle royale Fall Guys proved that when it was unseated by Among Us last year. It's good to see a lesser-known game like Rust finally get its time in the spotlight. Here's hoping it can stay there.