Examples of niche and mainstream cultures

 Mainstream culture

Niche culture

As an example of mass and niche culture, I've chosen two pretty similar games in their idea. Both of them are based on the "Mafia" board game, and basically have the same circumstances in the beginning - there is a team that needs to do something to survive. But one or several members of this team are betrayers and want to kill everybody else. So the team should figure out who is the traitor and kill them before they got killed themselves.

Both games are really alike, but Among Us is much easier to play because of its simplicity. It is also free to play on the phone, while Project Winter could be only bought.

I personally prefer Project Winter, because it requires some skill, it is possible to play with built-in voice chat, there are several variations on how people could become impostors, and there are other factors that might kill or save you, what gives this game much more complicity and outcomes, and creates lots of fun and interesting social situations.

But I completely understand why the majority of players prefer Among Us, and why it became a social phenomenon. The game became famous in 2020, but even now there are thousands of toys, plushies, stickers, etc. in shops all over the world. 

It is easy to find Among Us toys

There is nothing related to the Project Winter game