Over the last few months, miHoYo proved that the successful launch of Genshin Impact wasn’t accidental. The game has surpassed $1 billion in player spending in under six months, which makes Genshin Impact the first mobile title to do so. We asked Craig Chapple, mobile insights strategist at Sensor Tower, to provide some context to the game’s success.
Craig Chapple, Mobile Insights Strategist, EMEA at Sensor Tower
GWO: Craig, what do you think it is that miHoYo is doing so right?
Craig: Genshin Impact is receiving an almost unprecedented level of investment from developer miHoYo to ensure that not only did it launch as a high-end, cross-platform RPG, but that it will continue to implement new features, events, characters and even maps on a regular basis to keep up with player content consumption.
Why did it become such a hit from day one?
Craig: The comparisons with Breath of the Wild will have helped the title’s popularity, and the size of the world it offers is bigger than what we typically see in the West on mobile.
On mobile, they have been making around $160 million per month since December 2020. miHoYo really managed to translate this initial success into sustainable results.
Craig: On the engagement side, amongst everything else it’s doing, MiHoYo has been able to create interesting new characters that are released in an exciting way through the story and are exclusive for a set period of time, obtainable via Wishes [the gatcha system in Genshin Impact]. The well-crafted events combine well with the limited availability of these characters to help spur on revenue upon release and Character Event Wishes. The investment in regular new content is really where some of the top developers in the world excel at live operations. Tencent has done this with PUBG Mobile to great effect, Epic has done the same with Fortnite, and now miHoYo is doing it with Genshin Impact.