Genshin Impact - Races past $1 Billion on Mobile

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SensorTower reports that the Action RPG Genshin Impact earns money faster than Pokemon GO on mobile devices (keep in mind that 1 Billion is 10^9 in this article, which is called 1 Milliard in many other countries):

Genshin Impact Races Past $1 Billion on Mobile in Less Than Six Months

The mobile version of Genshin Impact from miHoYo has surpassed $1 billion in player spending in less than six months following its official launch on September 28, 2020, Sensor Tower Store Intelligence estimates show.

The title has been a global blockbuster since its release, having generated $874 million in just its first five months from the App Store and Google Play. Player spending has remained at an average of approximately $160 million per month since December, and so far in March the title has accumulated more than $148 million. That puts the game on track for its best month since October, when it picked up $233.7 million on mobile alone.

During the last 30 days, Genshin Impact ranked as the No. 3 revenue generating title on the App Store and Google Play combined, behind PUBG Mobile and Honor of Kings from Tencent. Outside of China, however, miHoYo's smash hit has been the No. 1 top grossing mobile game, racking up more than $129 million internationally over the past 30 days. That also makes it the No. 1 RPG both in, and outside, of China.

Genshin Impact is the fastest title to hit the $1 billion milestone on the App Store and Google Play, taking just less than six months. That's quicker than Pokémon GO from Niantic, which took nine months, and Lineage M from NCSoft, which took 10 months.

[...]
More information.
 
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$1b from which market though?

Globally but primarily in east asia or primarily from US customers, or EU, of any other, or is it equally popular in all countries?

[just trying to work out how culturally relevant the game is in my neck of the woods before finding out and taking an interest in what it is]
 
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Shark_money-1024x576.jpg
 
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Hmm, difficult to assess.

UK accounts for 4% of their dosh that chart would suggest. That's not a huge impact but I suppose its is quite large considering the relatively small size of the UK. 4% of $1b is $40m, and the uk has about 65-70m people, so it's very nearly "If I had a dollar every time someone said this'll never sell well, they'll never go for it".
 
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Impressive coverage of a gacha game. It's like Genshin Impact news everyday, and not even about expansions or new content, simply praising its mobile sales. Nobody even comments in these threads usually, it's the first time I see someone reacting to them.

Some mod here must have stocks on the miYoYo or something.
 
@Nereida;

  • Most arcticles on Genshin Impact have reactions
  • Genshin Impact is currently one of the most played RPGs on this planet
  • you can play it perfectly for free without any gacha mechanics on the PC (I do it)
  • no, I have no stocks in miHoYo
  • the initial budget on Genshin Impact was $100 Million, the yearly development cost is $200 Million - which shows in the production values
  • The game has only reached 10-15% of its final size and can already be played for several hundred hours
So I will continue to post newsbits about this impressive action RPG.
 
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Reactions ha…you and Joxer mostly. Most members don't care.:p
 
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Absolutely.

Personally, I can't wait to keep coming to a RPG site to get my daily fix on how many people got exploited into their gambling addiction for the profit of a mobile gacha product.

I guess that's why so many people voted Genshin Impact for RPG of the year 2020 in RPGwatch, everyone loved it and is dying to know more about it.

Oh wait, nobody voted it. My mistake.
 
Joxer and I have explained several times how to play and have fun with Genshin Impact without spending any money.
My main party is maxed out (level 90, world level 8, Adventure rank 55), has several 5 star characters and weapons and I never experienced any paywall. So noone is pushed into a gacha game here. If you don't like the game for whatever reason filter it out from your newsfeed.
 
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Well this article is not praising how many people are enjoying the game without paying, it's precisely praising how many people got lured into gambling with real money in the gacha, especifically in the mobile version of the game.

It's not that I do not like the game, I don't think anyone actually likes it, again, judging by the 2020 RPG of the year votes, in which Genshin Impact gets no mention, in a year where 20% of the people voted "None", so it's not like there was a fierce competition.

I think it is degrading to a quality RPG site that mobile gacha sales are announced in a praising manner: "They did better than Pokemon Go!" Well, good for them. Of course, I can just choose not to read the post, and definitely I should have chosen not to answer in the thread. I just felt news like these cheapen the value of RPGWatch as a respectable site for true RPG fans, but it should be none of my business, and I'll make sure to not mention it again.
 
The article says this in the end:
It’s an impressive feat—one that stems from a truly global audience and that is maintained by a substantial investment in new events, features, and characters on top of a rich world and rewarding gameplay experience.
Doesn't sound like "luring into gambling" for me.

Again, nobody needs to spend any gacha money at this game. If you want to give the devs some money I recommend the battle pass ($10 for 30 days) every few months. You get some nice bonuses on top of the free battle pass.
Spending more money on this game is contra-fun, because then you get overpowered too fast and the challenge is gone.
 
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IMO anything RPG pushing 1b+ revenue is news worthy. 1b is mobile numbers but the game is also on PC and consoles.

This game is wildly popular and from what I've read, people actually like the game, they're not all just pathetic gambling addicts. I've read numerous accounts of people (on PC, phone gaming is for savages) who play casual, solo, pay nothing, and enjoy the game because it has megatons of content and is updated regularly.

I installed the other day but haven't got that far yet - production values are definitely high. Looks great, plays great, interesting so far. UI designed for controllers makes me want to projectile vomit but that's not particular to this game.

I figured, why not check it out? See what all the hype is about (since real people are talking about and playing it, not just phone zombies). I understand how F2P works - I'm not some kid on a phone burning thru mom's credit.

FYI, if you do try, all you need is to sign up on their site with email - no credit card or personal info required.
 
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Free-to-play, eh? One might think if that game really stood that well on its "free" merits, there shouldn't be that many suckers dropping their money into it.

I really can't fathom what drives losers to sink money into such schemes, but then I instantly lose most interest in a game once the spectre of in-game-monetisation rears its ugly head.
An immersive game must never break that spell to really work, never mind reminding me that it is but a facade designed to part people from their scarce resources.

For what it's worth, I cannot even consider game like that RPGs anymore, no matter how many stats and levels they throw around.
They have perverted what was great about RPGs - CRPGs, actually - into a superficial munchkin fantasy where their core elements only serve to keep the consumers enthralled and the money flowing. In fact, I'm pretty sure they are going to be regarded the gravediggers of the RPG, even of gaming in general once the dust has settled. So many resources spent, so much trust squandered, so many ideals betrayed, so many illusions shattered, so many suckers tricked out of their lousy little income/pocket money. Free-to-play my ass - this will not end nicely.
 
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@Moorkh; - one question: have you played Genshin Impact? I think not.

This game offers gaming on many different levels.
  • You have to explore a very large open world with many puzzles, chests and challenges.
  • You have to build at least a fine-tuned 4-member-party that can survive the dungeons of the game. (For the optional end dungeon you need 8).
  • You have to optimize their gear and skills.
  • You have to solve the story quests to advance in the game.
  • Every few weeks new tempory optional mini-games are implemented into the gameworld (Only the last one: a dating event, an archery event, a gliding game and some fun mini-bosses with extra mini-stepping games to get tempory fighting bonuses).
  • There's an optional end game dungeon for advanced characters to test your skills.

There are a ton of entertaining game mechanics well implemented. The fighting is easy to learn, but hard to master.
Like in an MMO you do daily quests to advance (World rank, characters, gear).
The only games I played as long are Gothic 1&2, Jagged Alliance 2, Wizardry 7,Elder Scrolls Online, Skyrim and Left 4 Dead 1&2.
I would describe it as a single player Elder Scrolls Online.
 
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I did play a bit on my son's account and Genshin Impact looks like a likeable game, pleasing but largely generic visuals, solid controls, seemingly going where Guild Wars had gone before - been there, had some fun, but not planning to return.
I don't doubt there is a lot of fun to be had in the game. Even if played freely. That's not my point, even if TES Online Offline seems to be somewhat kooky as a concept. Whether an MMO's skill and levelling aspects make for much of an RPG once remove the whole social element is quite another matter.

My problems with Genshin Impact stem from two things:
The very fact that the game advertises things that can be added to the game for small amounts of money lessen the game in my eyes - I hated that in Guild Wars, I loathed it in Dragon Age. To me, it destroys the compact between me and the game designer that creates an illusion of something more than just a superficial set of gamey mechanics and a visual interface.

Far worse, though, is the very success of this "free" game. There is something inherently wrong about a supposedly free game returning that sort of money. Sure, if somebody offers you a great game for free and adds the option of paying the devs some money if you like it, you might show some gratitude. But that billion is not collected that way, is it? Instead, here we have a vehicle that poses as a videogame - with great art and mechanics, no doubt - but is actually just a means to trick people out of their money, perverting the magic of games into something that always keeps certain rewards just out of reach, giving just enough to keep you going and begging for just a couple pennies at every step until you have spent so much more than you would for any full-price game.

Sure, not every player is fooled, but is saying "That's their problem!" really enough? I know I'd feel soiled, so I'll avoid further touching this fundamentally flawed thing with a ten-foot pole.
 
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Games like ESO and Genshin Impact offer game services over a long time (several years). You basically have 4 options to finance such a service:

  1. buy base game + buy DLCs on a regular basis (ESO)
  2. free base game + free DLCs + gacha system (Genshin Impact)
  3. free base game + monthly fee (World of Warcraft)
  4. pay all at once (I don't know such a game)

In my case I played Genshin Impact 6 month 3 hours a day (=540 hours) and payed 2x11 Euros=22 Euros for two of the optional battle passes, not because I needed the battle passes, just because I had so much fun with the game and I wanted to support the devs.

That is ca. 4 Cent / hour!

The average Genshin player does the same because $1 Billion / 40 Million players is about $25.
Of course that is just the average, some whales who want to have every possible character and weapon are subsidising a lot of free players.
 
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This is always worth a watch, if you have a strong stomach.

Let's go whaling!
 
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Games like ESO and Genshin Impact offer game services over a long time (several years). You basically have 4 options to finance such a service:

  1. buy base game + buy DLCs on a regular basis (ESO)
  2. free base game + free DLCs + gacha system (Genshin Impact)
  3. free base game + monthly fee (World of Warcraft)
  4. pay all at once (I don't know such a game)

In my case I played Genshin Impact 6 month 3 hours a day (=540 hours) and payed 2x11 Euros=22 Euros for two of the optional battle passes, not because I needed the battle passes, just because I had so much fun with the game and I wanted to support the devs.

That is ca. 4 Cent / hour!

The average Genshin player does the same because $1 Billion / 40 Million players is about $25.
Of course that is just the average, some whales who want to have every possible character and weapon are subsidising a lot of free players.

Difference being you can't ruin your family by paying $15 a month to WoW or buying a ESO DLC for $30, but people with serious addictions will send their household into ruin just to get that one character they want.

If you can't see that, I don't know how else it can be explained. But sure, let's just praise how good a mediocre copy/paste of Zelda that doesn't get mentioned or voted in any game of the year list is so good at playing into people's addictions.

I guess the next answer will be "Durr, they weren't forced to pay for it". Sure. Nor people are forced to kill themselves with a cocaine overdose, or get lung cancer from smoking, yet I doubt anyone with the smallest code of morality will praise how many sales cocaine or tobacco are making.

Btw, Genshin Impact has a PEGI 12 rating. I guess that's the age where it's fine to steal your parents wallet to start giving into your gambling vices, make a good foundation leading to adulthood. I wonder if we could get a breakdown of how many 12-18 year olds have spent money they don't earn into Genshin Impact and celebrate that too.
 
This is always worth a watch, if you have a strong stomach.

Let's go whaling!

"Make sure grinding and paying are both legitimate ways to progress in your game."

Great find. They show that very same presentation in Cali, Medellin and Bogota, methinks. (no offence intended to any Colombians present ;) )
 
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