Sometimes a piece of fast food becomes a piece of gaming history. That is the only reasonable way to describe the Among Us chicken McNugget that sold in 2021 for $99,997.00, plus $4.20 shipping, for a grand total of $100,001.20. In 2026, the story still feels like a pandemic-era fever dream: a fan opened a McDonald's BTS Meal, spotted a McNugget with the unmistakable bean-shaped silhouette of an Among Us crewmate, and turned a 99-cent curiosity into a six-figure auction. Was it absurd? Absolutely. Was it also a perfect snapshot of how massive Among Us had become? Also yes.
The context matters. Among Us had already been out for a while, but it exploded in 2020 as the pandemic pushed friends toward online social deduction games. The Henry Stickmin Collection, which launched in 2020, packed in references to Among Us and helped push the game back into the spotlight. The fandom grew so loud that even high-profile charity streams and political figures got involved. By the time McDonald's launched its BTS meal promotion, Among Us was less a game and more a cultural shorthand. So when a crewmate-shaped nugget appeared in a real meal, the internet did what the internet does: it turned a joke into a bidding war.
From 99 cents to $100,001.20
The original listing asked for a measly 99 cents. That sounds almost reasonable for a weird novelty item. Then the bids started climbing. When the auction closed, the winning bid was $99,997.00, with $4.20 added for shipping. The grand total crossed the $100,000 mark. For a McNugget. A perishable, breaded chicken product. One has to wonder what the buyer planned to do with it. Frame it? Freeze it? Put it in a tiny display case next to a PS5? In 2026, the nugget would be roughly five years old, which makes the purchase look even more like a meme-driven time capsule than a sensible collectible investment.
To put the price in fast-food terms, McDonald's offered the BTS meal in a medium option at $9.68 and a large option at $12.29. Both came with 10 McNuggets. The larger meal upgraded the drink and fries, but it did not improve the odds of finding a crewmate-shaped nugget. For the winning bid, someone could have bought more than 10,000 medium meals, which means over 100,000 McNuggets. Would any of those have been crewmate-shaped? Probably not. But the buyer would have had lunch for a very long time.
| Purchase | Rough math | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Medium BTS meal | $9.68 each | More than 10,000 meals |
| Large BTS meal | $12.29 each | More than 8,000 meals |
| McNuggets per meal | 10 | Over 100,000 nuggets in medium meals |
| Crewmate-shaped nuggets guaranteed | 0 | The market is unpredictable |
The PS5 comparison that puts it in perspective
At the time, PlayStation 5 consoles were still painfully hard to find. That made the $100,001.20 total a fun measuring stick. Using the 2021 disc-based PS5 price of $499, the nugget money could have bought 200 consoles, with about $201 left over. Using the $399 PS5 Digital Edition, it could have bought 250 consoles, with about $251 left over. The math is silly, but it is also revealing. A single chicken nugget was valued at more than a pile of next-generation hardware.
And what about Among Us itself? The PS5 version was not yet priced at the time, but speculation pointed to the same $4.99 price as the Steam version. That means the leftover change from 200 disc consoles could have covered around 40 copies of Among Us. The leftover change from 250 digital consoles could have covered around 50 copies. So the full fantasy package was not just a mountain of PS5s, but a mountain of PS5s plus a small army of crewmates.
In 2026, that comparison hits differently. PS5 stock is no longer the nightmare it was during the pandemic. Among Us has also settled into a comfortable place in the gaming landscape. It is available on mobile, PC, Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox, and it remains a recognizable social deduction game. But the McNugget auction belongs to a very specific moment. It was a collision of a viral game, a fast-food promotion, and a fandom with too much time and too much internet energy.
What the saga says about gaming collectibles
The buyer was not really paying for chicken. They were paying for a story. A crewmate-shaped McNugget is funny, rare, and instantly recognizable. It is also not a sound financial asset. Is a $100,000 nugget an investment? Almost certainly not. Is it a conversation starter? Absolutely. That is the strange logic of meme collectibles. Value comes from attention, not utility. The same internet that made Among Us a hit also made a McNugget into an auction headline.
Would the buyer have been better off with a PS5, a stack of games, or a very large charity donation? That depends on what they wanted. If they wanted a piece of 2021 internet history, they got it. If they wanted practical value, they probably chose poorly. Either way, the Among Us McNugget remains one of gaming's weirdest side stories. It is a reminder that fandom can turn anything into a collectible, and that a single McNugget can say more about a moment than a thousand press releases. 🍗🎮