It seems that Genshin Impact is very popular in China. A campaign related to the game started in local KFC last week. There were many people willing to participate. So much so that in some cities the police had to intervene.
Source: Daniel Ahmad
Analyst Daniel Ahmad drew attention to the brand collaboration.
He said that since March 8, Chinese KFC began to give visitors themed bonuses for ordering food: a stylized skin for a glider in the game, stickers, unique recipes, branded buckets and much more.
Only last weekend another stage of the campaign started. From March 13 to March 14, visitors to this restaurant chain could receive badges with two Genshin Impact characters — Dilyuk and Noelle. To do this, you had to say a code phrase at the checkout: “Meet me in another world, enjoy delicious food.”
However, the excitement around the new stage of the campaign turned out to be too much.
According to Ahmad, already on the night of the 13th, huge queues of fans of the game began to line up in front of the doors of KFC. Some of the people even brought tents with them. And while some were waiting for the restaurants to open in a disciplined manner (from time to time having fun by chanting a code phrase in chorus). Others took away cardboard advertising figures with characters displayed at the entrance to KFC.
Here are some bonus images of the lines outside KFC.
Some people have camping equipment with them. pic.twitter.com/fsh13bUvLz
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) March 12, 2021
In two cities — Shanghai and Hangzhou — there were so many people at restaurants that the police had to disperse them. As Ahmad noted, such large crowds violated the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is despite the fact that there are practically no recorded cases of diseases in the country. Later, in these cities, the second stage of the action was canceled altogether.
During the daytime, the number of people wishing to receive limited badges for Genshin Impact has only grown. But in most cities, the police managed to organize a crowd and build “correct queues” that did not contradict antiviral restrictions.
It's worth noting that COVID-19 isn't much of an issue in China and hasn't really been for months at this point. Things are back to normal which is why events like this can run, but ofc the turnout was much higher than expectations.
So crowd control was implemented by police. pic.twitter.com/AelbNpqykI
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) March 13, 2021
Recall that Genshin Impact is one of the highest—grossing mobile games in the world. According to Sensor Tower estimates, since the release last September and by March 2021, the title has earned $874 million only in the App Store and Google Play. At the same time, the project is also available on PC and consoles.