diff --git a/Tapeti/Connection/TapetiBasicConsumer.cs b/Tapeti/Connection/TapetiBasicConsumer.cs
index 42e3181..757292d 100644
--- a/Tapeti/Connection/TapetiBasicConsumer.cs
+++ b/Tapeti/Connection/TapetiBasicConsumer.cs
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ namespace Tapeti.Connection
     /// <summary>
     /// Implements the bridge between the RabbitMQ Client consumer and a Tapeti Consumer
     /// </summary>
-    internal class TapetiBasicConsumer : DefaultBasicConsumer
+    internal class TapetiBasicConsumer : AsyncDefaultBasicConsumer
     {
         private readonly IConsumer consumer;
         private readonly long connectionReference;
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ namespace Tapeti.Connection
 
 
         /// <inheritdoc />
-        public override void HandleBasicDeliver(string consumerTag,
+        public override async Task HandleBasicDeliver(string consumerTag,
             ulong deliveryTag,
             bool redelivered,
             string exchange,
@@ -50,20 +50,15 @@ namespace Tapeti.Connection
             // See also: https://github.com/JamesNK/Newtonsoft.Json/issues/1761
             var bodyArray = body.ToArray();
 
-            // Changing to AsyncDefaultBasicConsumer does not mean HandleBasicDeliver runs in parallel, the Task.Run would
-            // still be necessary, which is why TapetiBasicConsumer is a DefaultBasicConsumer.
-            Task.Run(async () =>
+            try
             {
-                try
-                {
-                    var response = await consumer.Consume(exchange, routingKey, new RabbitMQMessageProperties(properties), bodyArray);
-                    await onRespond(connectionReference, deliveryTag, response);
-                }
-                catch
-                {
-                    await onRespond(connectionReference, deliveryTag, ConsumeResult.Error);
-                }
-            });
+                var response = await consumer.Consume(exchange, routingKey, new RabbitMQMessageProperties(properties), bodyArray).ConfigureAwait(false);
+                await onRespond(connectionReference, deliveryTag, response).ConfigureAwait(false);
+            }
+            catch
+            {
+                await onRespond(connectionReference, deliveryTag, ConsumeResult.Error).ConfigureAwait(false);
+            }
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/Tapeti/Connection/TapetiClient.cs b/Tapeti/Connection/TapetiClient.cs
index 1c4b016..9ea0694 100644
--- a/Tapeti/Connection/TapetiClient.cs
+++ b/Tapeti/Connection/TapetiClient.cs
@@ -777,9 +777,13 @@ namespace Tapeti.Connection
                 Password = connectionParams.Password,
                 AutomaticRecoveryEnabled = false,
                 TopologyRecoveryEnabled = false,
-                RequestedHeartbeat = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30)
+                RequestedHeartbeat = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30),
+                DispatchConsumersAsync = true
             };
 
+            if (connectionParams.ConsumerDispatchConcurrency > 0)
+                connectionFactory.ConsumerDispatchConcurrency = connectionParams.ConsumerDispatchConcurrency;
+
             if (connectionParams.ClientProperties != null)
                 foreach (var pair in connectionParams.ClientProperties)
                 {
diff --git a/Tapeti/Helpers/ConnectionstringParser.cs b/Tapeti/Helpers/ConnectionstringParser.cs
index c872a79..4445b7e 100644
--- a/Tapeti/Helpers/ConnectionstringParser.cs
+++ b/Tapeti/Helpers/ConnectionstringParser.cs
@@ -126,6 +126,7 @@ namespace Tapeti.Helpers
                 case "password": result.Password = value; break;
                 case "prefetchcount": result.PrefetchCount = ushort.Parse(value); break;
                 case "managementport": result.ManagementPort = int.Parse(value); break;
+                case "consumerDispatchConcurrency": result.ConsumerDispatchConcurrency = int.Parse(value); break;
             }
         }
     }
diff --git a/Tapeti/TapetiConnectionParams.cs b/Tapeti/TapetiConnectionParams.cs
index 43f923f..5e8e50e 100644
--- a/Tapeti/TapetiConnectionParams.cs
+++ b/Tapeti/TapetiConnectionParams.cs
@@ -50,6 +50,17 @@ namespace Tapeti
         /// </summary>
         public int ManagementPort { get; set; } = 15672;
 
+        /// <summary>
+        /// The maximum number of consumers which are run concurrently.
+        /// </summary>
+        /// <remarks>
+        /// The number of consumers is usually roughly equal to the number of queues consumed.
+        /// Do not set too high to avoid overloading the thread pool.
+        /// The RabbitMQ Client library defaults to 1. Due to older Tapeti versions implementing concurrency
+        /// effectively limited by the PrefetchCount, this will default to Environment.ProcessorCount instead.
+        /// </remarks>
+        public int ConsumerDispatchConcurrency { get; set; }
+
         /// <summary>
         /// Key-value pair of properties that are set on the connection. These will be visible in the RabbitMQ Management interface.
         /// Note that you can either set a new dictionary entirely, to allow for inline declaration, or use this property directly
@@ -69,6 +80,7 @@ namespace Tapeti
         /// </summary>
         public TapetiConnectionParams()
         {
+            ConsumerDispatchConcurrency = Environment.ProcessorCount;
         }
 
         /// <summary>
@@ -77,7 +89,7 @@ namespace Tapeti
         /// <example>new TapetiConnectionParams(new Uri("amqp://username:password@hostname/"))</example>
         /// <example>new TapetiConnectionParams(new Uri("amqp://username:password@hostname:5672/virtualHost"))</example>
         /// <param name="uri"></param>
-        public TapetiConnectionParams(Uri uri)
+        public TapetiConnectionParams(Uri uri) : this()
         {
             HostName = uri.Host;
             VirtualHost = string.IsNullOrEmpty(uri.AbsolutePath) ? "/" : uri.AbsolutePath;