Genshin Impact celebrates five years and $6.4bn on mobile as annual spend declines by 42%

• Genshin Impact released on September 28th, 2020.
• Year five was its least lucrative yet on Google Play and the App Store, but new content continues to be added regularly.

Open-world RPG giant Genshin Impact has celebrated its fifth anniversary with a new setting, new characters and its latest version update already in play.

Version 6.0, or Song of the Welkin Moon: Segue, launched on September 10th and kickstarted the newest chapter, set in the game’s seventh major region called Nod-Krai.

The update came shortly before the anniversary itself, celebrated on September 28th and marking five years of HoYoverse’s flagship game.

Over those five years, AppMagic estimates suggest Genshin Impact has made at least $6.4 billion in player spending between the App Store and Google Play, with its true earnings likely much higher between alternative stores, other platforms like PC and console, and its web shop.

This half-decade has also seen Genshin Impact pick up a slew of accolades, including Best Game at the Google Play Awards 2020 and fastest game ever to reach $5bn. It’s changed the game for gacha makers, raising the bar and serving as a consistent source of competition.

And, in the process, it has helped solidify HoYoverse as a mainstay in our annual Top 50 Mobile Game Makers (2025 edition coming soon).

Even five years on, HoYoverse has remained at the top of mobile RPG charts with gold and silver medals in H1 2025, after Genshin Impact’s breakout success also served as a boon for the hype cycle and later financial acclaim of Honkai: Star Rail too.

Tying up loose ends

Genshin Impact’s fifth anniversary follows an established pattern of introducing a new region for the year ahead, bringing its own characters, story campaign and territories to explore. Last year, players went to the volcanic land of Natlan. The year before, to Fontaine, a cultural and artistic hub in the sea.

This year, Nod-Krai serves as "a place where all elements naturally converge". It marks the seventh major region of Genshin Impact’s world Teyvat, and will aim to fill in the gaps around established lore where the development team still has old details in design documents yet to be represented in-game.

In a gameplay sense, the region will focus on magnet-like polarised energy and feature characters who harness this primordial power. A plot to claim the moon’s power has already begun to unfold.

"We want to tidy up the stories scattered across all of Teyvat," one HoYoverse team member shared during a behind-the-scenes. "In this location, we want to be able to naturally bring in all of Teyvat’s different factions to create a story together with a common goal."

Another noted: "This year our aim is to bring these loose threads together."

Monetary impact

Genshin Impact found its greatest mobile success in its first year with $1.8bn in revenue, according to estimates. Though spending appears to have declined slowly year-over-year since, increasingly important factors like web shops aren’t represented, and the game still surpassed $1bn three years in a row regardless.

More recently, player spending between the major mobile storefronts has slipped more dramatically, down to $876.7 million in year four and $504.8m in year five. This meant a 42% spending fall this past year.

January 2025 proved the most lucrative month of year five at $88.4m in player spending, strong from the offset with the Lantern Rite festival on New Year's Day and the addition of God of War Mavuika to the gacha.

Notably, Genshin Impact’s most lucrative single day in year five was not in January but in June, when version 5.7 launched and Skirk and Dahlia joined the gacha on the 18th. A total $11.3m was generated that day, the game’s highest peak since April 24th, 2024.

Yet June 2025 as a whole went on to make $63.7m, landing as this year’s second-best month.

While overall year five mobile spending was just 27% of year one’s sum, showing a downward trend typical for aging mobile games, Genshin Impact has continued to rank highly among RPGs and has demonstrated HoYoverse’s staying power in the market.

Now, the Chinese developer has two goliath games in Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, often trading places for the top monthly spot in the genre, while Zenless Zone Zero also adds to the money pot.

In fact, even in year five Genshin Impact outperformed Zenless Zone Zero's debut year.

And HoYoverse isn't slowing down. The company unveiled its first life sim Petit Planet just last week, and its brand continues to expand with a Genshin Impact crossover currently underway in Among Us.

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