What Is Among Us? Crewmates, Impostors and Five Maps

Crewmates, impostors, emergency meetings and a lot of finger-pointing. That's Among Us, the game we make. Here's a short guide to it, for new players and old ones.

Who makes Among Us?

We're Innersloth, an American game studio. Co-founder Marcus Bromander came up with the concept and works on the design, art and music, while co-founder Forest Willard handles the programming. The game came out on Android and iOS on June 15, 2018, and on PC that November. Switch, PlayStation and Xbox versions followed in 2020 and 2021.

How do you play?

• Crewmates: finish your tasks around the map and work out who is lying.
• Impostors: blend in, sabotage the ship and take crewmates out one by one.
• Meetings: anyone can report a body or press the Emergency Meeting button, and then everyone votes.

A game holds four to fifteen players, with up to three Impostors. Lobbies were capped at ten until the 15-player update on June 15, 2021, the game's third birthday.

Where did the idea come from?

We took inspiration from the party game Mafia and from the 1982 film The Thing: a small group, isolated, and nobody knows who to trust.

Why did everyone play it in 2020?

The game was two years old when it suddenly took off in mid-2020, helped by streamers on Twitch and YouTube. In late September 2020 it peaked at 3.8 million players at once, and that December it won Best Mobile Game and Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards.

Which maps are there?

The Skeld came first, then MIRA HQ and Polus in 2019, The Airship in 2021 and The Fungle in 2023.

Want to take the crew with you? Shop the Among Us collection.