miHoYo’s breakout hit Genshin Impact has passed a new milestone, generating $3.7 billion in revenue two years following its release.
Only two games, Honor of Kings and PUBG Mobile (including PUBG’s Chinese counterpart Peacekeeper Elite) generated more revenue than Genshin Impact during this period, with $5.5 billion and $4.9 billion.
This new milestone in player spending marks Genshin Impact as the most successful launch of a new mobile IP since Honor of Kings, which was released in 2015. The game celebrates its second anniversary this week,
Bucking market trends
Sensor Tower data shows that Genshin Impact made more money in its second year ($2 billion) compared to its first year ($1.7 billion.) In defiance of market trends, which saw significant falls in player spending in 2022, Genshin Impact saw a meteoric rise in earnings in Q1 (16 percent) and Q2 (Q2).
Sensor Tower singles Genshin Impact out as the most successful mobile game using a gacha system, having earned more than the second and third place gacha games combined over the past two years. This is attributed in part to the game’s success in fostering player loyalty in some of the world's most lucrative markets, including China, which was responsible for 33 percent of the game’s revenue, and the USA, which generated 17 percent.
Interestingly, Japan came in at second place in terms of revenue, with 24 percent. This is despite the fact that the country has been slow to adapt to mobile technology.
Spending is roughly even between app stores in most territories. The exception is China, where the app store accounted for 68 percent of player spend. However, the Google Play store is unavailable in China, and Sensor Tower doesn’t record revenue from third party Android app stores in the country.
