Genshin Impact's early numbers imply it's destined for success. The profit through gacha-style monetization is already skyrocketing, and the game is released just a week ago.
Genshin Impact is China-based mobile game developer Mihoyo's most ambitious project to date, and it's off to a great start. Mihoyo is well-known for making high-quality mobile games, and this is the first time they are releasing a game on PC and consoles too. The production value of Genshin Impact screams triple-A, and as soon as you launch the game it's hard to believe that it is a f2p game.
More than 300 people were involved in the development process of this game over the last 4 years, and the total budget is said to be around $100 million.
According to a senior game analyst at Niko, Daniel Ahmad , the investment is paying off. Based on preliminary data, Genshin Impact is on track to gross more than $100 million across all platforms by the end of this month. The game is successful not just in its home market, but also in Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, the US, etc.
Ahmad estimates that $50 million was made in the first week, with the majority of it coming from China, Japan, and the U.S. The game saw 17 million global downloads in its first four days according to App Annie , and it seems like estimates for the game are fairly positive.
Mihoyo
The game had more than 20 million pre-registrations prior to launch, of which more than 5 million were from outside China. This is a huge achievement not just for a Chinese developed game, but for a new original IP too.
Genshin Impact is an action RPG that is free-to-play with gacha-style monetization, where you can "roll" for different characters and weapons to add to your party with currency. Something like lootboxes. Yet it's also a massive RPG, with a surprisingly large scale and high production values, and it's playable on phones, PlayStation 4, and PC, with cross-save support across all platforms, except PS4.
