Among Us comes to China… sort of
An Among Us clone created by a Chinese developer has topped the iOS download charts in China.
One of the biggest modern milestones for success for any piece of media, would have to be breaking into the Chinese market in some form. Now, Among Us has made its way into the People’s Republic of China, by way of a Chinese clone game, titled Werewolf Among Us.
Why was an Among Us clone made in China?
The practice of Chinese companies cloning popular games and releasing them within their country’s borders has been going on for quite some time now, and is wrapped in a number of issues that are fairly sensitive, to say the least.
Without getting too bogged down in geopolitics, diplomacy, and international laws regarding intellectual property, it’s easiest to say that the Chinese government often doesn't care if a Chinese company copies an idea or IP from a foreign one.
People who get paid a lot of money debate endlessly about what should be done about this, but now that it has happened, there doesn’t seem like much left for them to talk about.
Werewolf Among Us isn’t the only clone of Among Us to have made its way into the Chinese market, but it is currently the most successful. Werewolf Among Us is the most downloaded iOS app in China at this point in time, while the original itself sits at the tenth spot.
Why not just play the original Among Us?
While both Among Us and Werewolf Among Us are both free for iOS devices in China, Chinese gamers show a clear preference to their own local variants over the international one. While there may be a number of cultural reasons for this preference, the simple answer is likely just that Among Us currently lacks a Chinese localization.
Currently, Among Us only supports five languages, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, and Russian. For the millions of Chinese players, there is no option that doesn’t require them to translate parts of the game during play.
For now, having a successful Chinese knockoff can be seen as Among Us earning yet another milestone. Hopefully, any future milestones will be more directly impactful to the game’s creators.