MiHoYo’s Genshin Impact has grossed over $100m since it launched globally two weeks ago, a huge global success for a game from out of China. Data from several sources confirms that the game has made upwards of $100 million US in 12 days. The game’s development budget was reported to be in the range of $100 million, so at this point it looks like miHoYo has recouped that cost and might just be making money.
Free-to-play, open world, cel-shaded RPG Genshin Impact launched on September 28th and has become very popular in Japan, Korea, and China, though it’s not without its fans in the Americas and Europe. It’s not without critics or controversy, either.
Prominent Asian games industry commentator Daniel Ahmad expects that the game will soon have made more than 1 billion RMB, the Chinese currency. That’s nearly $150 million US Ahmad, a business analyst with firm Niko Partners, said that Genshin Impact was “Without a doubt the most successful launch for an original IP from a Chinese dev.” That echoes thoughts around the internet last week that Genshin Impact was the biggest-ever global launch from a Chinese developer.
Genshin Impact is free-to-play, but funded by a system of in-game “gacha-style” gambling loot boxes. Our Steven Messner called it the “dark horse of 2020” just after it launched. It’s an open world RPG with a lot of appeal and a nice cel-shaded graphical style, as well as a heap of stuff to do. It seems like a good game, especially at the price of free but it’s definitely one to avoid if you have poor impulse control in free games. The Washington Post published an editorial on the subject saying that it was “gambling real-world cash in a casino where the house always wins.”
This week’s PC Gamer podcast delved deeper into why Genshin Impact is so compelling despite its free-to-play roots. If you’d like to learn more, check out our guide to the characters, or get a look at the two further updates coming to Genshin Impact in 2020.
Cheers, Siliconera.
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