The game Genshin Impact was a surprise hit for PC and PlayStation 4 in 2020. But many may be surprised at how much money the gacha game has made on mobile. It has already earned a billion US dollars worldwide on iOS and Android. The Chinese and Japanese are crazy about the game and the heroes.
This is Genshin Impact for us: In Europe and in the gaming mainstream, we have perceived Genshin Impact primarily as “a kind of open-world Zelda clone” that suddenly appeared for PC and PS4 in September 2020. We viewed it more as an action role-playing game, classic for PC and PlayStation:
- When the game was presented, a player even destroyed his PS4 in protest against the alleged clone of “Zelda: Breath of the Wild”
- MeinMMO author Larissa Then loved how much Genshin Impact reminded her of Zelda
Genshin Impact is the absolute money maker on mobile
This is Genshin Impact especially in Asia: It is a mega-hit for mobile platforms. As the site Sensor Tower now reports, the game has earned:
- 292 million US dollars in China
- over 278 million US dollars in Japan
- at least another 189 million US dollars in the USA
Genshin Impact broke the mark of “one billion US dollars” through the App Store and Google Play after just 6 months, making it a faster “billion-dollar” game than mobile hits Pokémon GO, Lineage M or Clash Royale.
In China, Genshin Impact is still behind PUBG Mobile and Honor of Kings, but outside of China, it is leading.
How does Genshin Impact make so much money on mobile? As Sensor Tower knows, revenues mainly spike on days when new heroes enter the game. Every hero that was released in 2021 has earned at least 12 million US dollars:
- Ganyu came on January 13, 2021 and brought in 14.8 million US dollars
- Xiao managed to earn around 15.1 million US dollars on February 3
- Hu Tao brought in 12.9 million US dollars on March 2
While on a normal day, “only” about 5.8 million dollars are earned, the new champs make a substantial increase in revenue.
Where do these numbers come from? The values from Sensor Tower are based on estimates of their algorithm about what games generate in the App Store and Google Play. The numbers are therefore not official.
Considering that Genshin Impact has also been released on PS4 and PC and was successful there as well, the actual earnings of Genshin Impact are likely much higher.
Genshin Impact uses a controversial “gacha system” to earn so much money. A YouTuber points out the dangers of this gambling system.
YouTuber spends a lot of money on Genshin Impact to show how foolish it is
