Major Impact
miHoYo’s evocative mobile RPG Genshin Impact has gotten off to an amazing start. Within its first month of release, the free-to-play title has already raked in a staggering $245 million USD in in-game purchases worldwide.
The number-crunchers over at Sensor Tower have noted that Genshin Impact has had one of the strongest launch months ever for a mobile title, beating out the launches for titles such as Nintendo’s Fire Emblem Heroes and even Epic Games’ almighty Fortnite for mobile. Amazingly, this figure does not include any profit made from the PS4 and PC editions, nor from the Android version in China, it seems pretty snug to suggest that the charming adventure title has seen record-breaking success.
Industry analyst Daniel Ahmad told Sensor Tower that China’s mobile gaming market has long looked to achieve such international success. “Chinese game developers have long looked to capture Western audiences, without losing their audience at home,” said Ahmad. “Genshin Impact is a great example of how Chinese developers are succeeding in the West by focusing on high production values, popular gameplay mechanics, and deep progression systems.”
“The game feels and plays like a console game while ultimately being a free-to-play gacha title. Genshin Impact’s global success reflects the evolution of Chinese game development, from outsourced artwork 15 years ago to full game development for the domestic market more recently, and now to full game development that resonates with global markets as well as the home front.”
Many mobile titles see their strongest month at launch, with figures slowly petering out in the following weeks. It will be interesting to see how long Genshin Impact rides this phenomenal wave of success, especially with its Nintendo Switch port still to launch.
