The worldwide release of Genshin Impact could be the largest in the history of Chinese games

What You Need to Know about Genshin Impact Development

• the project was created by the Chinese studio miHoYo, which has already been noted for several successful titles. According to Sensor Tower, their game Honkai Impact 3rd earned $ 760 million, and in total it was downloaded more than 40 million times;
• according to the co-founder of miHoYo Liu Wei, the production budget of Genshin Impact was $100 million;
• in China, the number of pre-registrations reached 16 million, and outside of China, about 5.3 million people registered on the official website of the game;
• Genshin Impact was also praised by Shuhei Yoshida, former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment. On Twitter, he called the project “one of my most anticipated games of 2020.”

Comparisons with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

• because of the style and similar mechanics, the game was often compared to the hit Nintendo. Some journalists wrote literally the following headlines: “A free Zelda clone that you can play while waiting for Breath of the Wild 2″;
• miHoYo openly said that she was inspired by the Nintendo project, but insisted that both games are in fact very different from each other;
• among the main features of Genshin Impact, the studio called: a completely original story and gameplay, which is tied not to one hero, but to a whole group of characters.

In addition, several more scandals have formed around Genshin Impact. Before the release, miHoYo removed the game from the Chinese stores Huawei and Xiaomi in protest against the 50% commission. Also after the release, the developers were forced to abandon the anti-cheat system, which remained running even after the game was closed or deleted.

Instant success at the start

• in just a few hours after the release, Genshin Impact attracted 110 thousand simultaneous viewers on Twitch, surpassing Fortnite in popularity;
• According to Qimai Data, on the day of release in China, the game became the second highest-grossing project in the App Store. It is outstripped only by Douyin, the local version of TikTok;
• on iOS alone, Genshin Impact’s revenue exceeded $1.84 million (the game was released on September 28 on PC, mobile devices and PS4);
• according to AppMagic, the total revenue of the project on mobile platforms was $3 million, and the number of downloads was 4.75 million.

What do analysts say about the success of Genshin Impact?

The game miHoYo has every chance to show the largest world launch among all Chinese games in history. “I think that no other Chinese game has ever had so many pre—registrations outside of the home market before,“ said Serkan Toto, CEO of the consulting agency Kantan Games Inc.

Experts believe that the success of Genshin Impact is a consequence of China’s rapidly developing gaming industry. The global release on several platforms at once also speaks about the country’s ambitions in the global market.

Sho Sato, CEO of the Japanese consulting company LUDiMUS Inc., notes that the success of the project was also influenced by aggressive marketing and increased interest in online games on self-isolation.

Also on the topic:

• China intends to support games that reflect local culture and values
• Niko Partners: There are 720 million gamers in China, two-thirds of whom live outside major cities
• The problem of sexism in the Chinese gaming industry amid the scandal with the authors of Black Myth: Wukong