Honkai: Star Rail, the upcoming game from Genshin Impact developer miHoYo, has already attracted millions of players in the months leading up to its launch. This is due to the recently launched pre-registration event.
What happened?
- On February 10, miHoYo opened pre-registrations for Honkai: Star Rail on its official website.
- The game is available for pre-registration on Google Play and pre-order on the App Store. Players can also wishlist it on the Epic Games Store.
- The company launched it as a community event, promising various rewards for achieving certain goals. For example, upon reaching 500k pre-registrations, all participants will receive 50k in-game currency once Honkai: Star Rail launches globally. The bigger the milestone the bigger rewards, including a 4-star character.
- On February 12, miHoYo reported 2 million pre-registrations, and at the moment of writing, the counter has reached 2,394,138 pre-registered users.
- The biggest goal on the list is 5 million, so Honkai: Star Rail still has chances to reach this milestone.
- The game is expected to come out on April 26, according the App Store data. However, miHoYo hasn’t officially confirmed the release date.
What is Honkai: Star Rail?
- miHoYo announced Honkai: Star Rail in October 2021, marking the company’s return to its Honkai series.
- Prior to Genshin Impact, a multi-billion dollar global hit RPG, the Chinese studio was best known for Honkai Impact 3rd — a free-to-play action RPG and a successor to miHoYo’s mobile shooter Houkai Gakuen 2.
- Launched on October 14, 2016 in China, Honkai Impact 3rd used an anime style similar to Genshin Impact and also featured gacha mechanics as its main monetization tool.
- According to AppMagic, Honkai Impact 3rd has generated $825 million on iOS and Android. China accounts for 47% of the game’s total revenue, followed by Japan (16%) and South Korea (13%).
- It also generated 56 million downloads, with 22% of them coming from China. Othe countries in the top 5 by installs include Indonesia, the US, Vietnam, and Japan.
Honkai Impact 3rd lifetime mobile revenue (via AppMagic)
- Honkai: Star Rail is set after the events of Honkai Impact 3rd, introducing both new characters and using alternative versions of the series’ existing heroes.
- In the game, players will control a group of up to four characters while exploring the open world and fighting in turn-based combats.
- miHoYo also has plans to make all its big games a part of the one universe united under its global HoYoverse brand. Earlier this year, co-founder Liu Wei opened up about the company’s goal to build a virtual world that connects 1 billion users by 2030.