Among Us Clone Shoots To The Top Of The Charts In China

A new game called Werewolf Among Us has become the most downloaded free game on the App Store in China this week, the South China Morning Post reported. It overtook gaming behemoth Tencent's Honour of Kings and Peacekeeper Elite to claim the top spot.

The clone boasts similar, if more cutesy graphics to Innersloth's surprise hit Among Us, and is set in a medieval castle instead of in space. Developed by a relatively unknown company called Shenzhen Youliang Technology, the game dropped on October 28 and has since racked up over 478,000 downloads, becoming the most popular of a number of Among Us clones being rushed for the Chinese market.

As a relatively small indie game, Among Us so far has not been translated or localized for the Chinese market. Its place in English-speaking gaming world was cemented when Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez streamed herself playing to a huge Twitch audience. The game's rise in popularity was relatively surprising, as it originally released in 2018. A planned sequel was even canceled to focus on the newly popular original.

The game has an odd reputation in the Chinese-speaking world, however, where party game Werewolf was incredibly popular well before Among Us shot to popularity in the west. For many gamers in China, Among Us is simply "Space Werewolf."

At the peak of the Werewolf craze in China, it was played on celebrity game shows, available in countless popular mobile games, and streamed online--just like Among Us. Although the trend has died down a little in recent years, Werewolf is still culturally significant enough for Chinese speakers that the comparisons with Among Us are unavoidable.

While Innersloth has recently revealed a new development roadmap that includes additional localization for different languages, it's unclear what languages are being prioritized--and if clone games will corner the Chinese-speaking market before the original game is officially translated.