‘You are an imposter!’
A phrase that spread like wildfire, all because a game brought people together when the pandemic kept them apart.
Among Us quietly launched in 2018, developed by Innersloth. The studio started with just three people and now has about 78 employees across six continents. In mid-2020, the game exploded alongside Netflix binges and Dalgona coffee. It eventually crossed 908 million downloads and still draws more than 25 million players a month. Its success comes down to a simple, effective Among Us business model. Here is an overview of what the game is like before we look at its business model!
What Is Among Us?
Among us is a space-themed murder-mystery game which was released by Innersloth on 15th June, 2018. Team work, mystery solving, and deception are the essence of this trending four to ten player game.
In its first year, the game had peaked at 1800 concurrent players, which was suffice to bring their servers down temporarily. It was only later that they climbed up Steam, iOS, and Google play store charts.
It was inspired by the game Mafia and the science fiction horror movie, The Thing,where people work in a team to lay hands on a ‘traitor’.
One of the primary reasons why the game’s popularity has skyrocketed is the abundance of streams of Among Us related content on the internet. The initial growth of Among Us was driven primarily by content creators in South Korea and Brazil. In July 2020, the game was made popular on twitch by the streamer Sodapoppin and little did anybody know, that the game will clock around 264 million downloads all around the globe by the end of the year. Lifetime downloads have since reached 908.6 million. Akin to Zoom, it’s popularity skyrocketed majorly during the pandemic.
How Does Among Us Operate?
There are one to three randomly assigned imposter(s) in each round. The other players are crewmates who are assigned tasks like fixing wires, downloading data amongst many others which they are supposed to complete. The objective of the imposters is to blend in with the crewmates and pretend to do a fake list of tasks, while attempting to take any covert opportunities to kill the crewmates instantaneously. They can sabotage vital systems, travel through vents, and can team up with other imposters to help kill the crewmates. The maps can also be customised from a spaceship ‘Skeld’ to a headquarters building ‘MIRA HQ’, a planet base ‘Polus’, an ‘Airship’, or the mushroom-filled island ‘The Fungle’.
Who Are Among Us Game’s Customers?
Unlike Candy Crush and other short spanned hyper casual games which last for barely two-three minutes, a typical game of Among Us lasts longer for approximately fifteen to twenty minutes. This makes the game immersive as people need to get engrossed in the game while interacting with their friends at the same time. Since Generation Z has the most spare time on their hands, they are the most suited audience for the Among Us business model.
What Value Does Among Us Provide?
People get to play and interact with not just their friends and known ones but also socialise with other unknown people they might come across on discord or other platforms while playing the game. Since four to ten people play the game, this initiates a chain reaction which eventually leads to a network effect. During the pandemic, the Among Us business model allowed people to socialise despite social-distancing. It also provides people with a good way to pass their time and compete with others. Moreover, the human element brings with it in-game strategies and an essence of psychological manipulation and ingenious deception.
Among Us Revenue Model
Despite being a free game, Among us has continued to make money because of the Among Us business model. The various sources of revenue include:
Revenue From PC Downloads
Although the mobile versions of the game are free, the PC version is available on Steam, which charges a one-time purchasing fee of $5. Although PC users constituted only 3% of their player base, the $5 upfront cost contributed to a large share of Innersloth’s revenue from August to November in 2020. Purchasing the PC version unlocks all the premium cosmetics which cost additionally in the mobile version.
Revenue From The Mobile Versions
The mobile version of the game is based on a freemium model. Therefore even though the game is free, the sources of revenue include:
Advertisements
Advertisements pop up on the player’s screens after each game finishes. Amongst many others, Among Us also uses Admob and other ad partners to monetise its user base. Advertisers pay them on a pay per click or number of viewers basis. The timers we see are set to ensure that the ad is displayed to the users for a certain appropriate time frame. Since there are millions of active users, it becomes easy for Among Us to generate substantial amounts of revenue.
In-App purchases
Among Us lets players opt out of ads and buy cosmetics through Stars. This premium currency is purchased with real money and funds Cosmicubes, themed cosmetic bundles with branching unlock paths. Beans are earned through gameplay. The Indie Cosmicube features crossovers with Undertale, Celeste, and Untitled Goose Game. More collaborations, including Ace Attorney, are planned for 2026. With ARPDAU under $0.01, monetization relies on scale rather than high spenders. Buying the PC version on Steam unlocks all cosmetics that cost extra on mobile.
Merchandise
Selling products like t-shirts and plushies designed with characters related to the game is another huge source of Among Us revenue for Innersloth. Owing to its immense popularity, the merchandise got sold out within a few weeks.
However, the over 60 million dollars in lifetime mobile revenue, do not all get to Innersloth. They have to incur various costs like that to the platforms the game can be found available on. Apart from paying the Google play store, the iOS play store, and steam, Innersloth also has to juggle with tax laws of different countries all over the world to pay taxes on the money they make.They also need to retain a significant amount of money after having paid the developers, for not just tax reasons but to have a pool of funds they can use for further development of the game.
The Future Of Among Us
Among Us still follows a “games as a service” model, generating revenue through ongoing updates instead of sequels. After cancelling a planned follow-up, the team focused entirely on expanding the original game. Since launch, they’ve shipped console versions and a friend system. New maps include The Fungle, and the role roster keeps growing with additions like Tracker, Phantom, Detective, and Judge. Among Us 3D, a full 3D remake built with Schell Games, arrived in May 2025.
The brand has stretched well beyond the base game. An animated TV series quietly dropped on Paramount+ in June 2026. Created by Owen Dennis of Infinity Train, it’s a 10-episode adult sci-fi black comedy. The cast includes Randall Park, Ashley Johnson, and Elijah Wood. At Summer Game Fest, Innersloth revealed Among Us Story: On Guard, a single-player narrative spinoff. The 2026 roadmap includes 15 role prototypes in testing, plus new Cosmicubes and collaborations. Outersloth also continues funding indie developers.
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