Genshin Impact works its magic to become biggest global launch of a Chinese game ever, analysts say
- Genshin Impact is an open-world, action adventure game that lets users play as young, magic-conjuring warriors
- Analysts say success of miHoYo-developed game is another sign of the growing technical and marketing prowess of China in the video games space
Grossing more than China’s TikTok and nabbing more views on Twitch than Fortnite on launch day, the free-to-play action adventure game Genshin Impact marks the biggest international launch of a Chinese game in history, say industry experts.
Launched on mobile, PC and PlayStation 4 on Monday, the much-anticipated Genshin Impact, developed by Shanghai-based miHoYo, is off to an explosive start in China and across the world. Just hours after launch, the game had more than 110,000 concurrent viewers on live-streaming platform Twitch, making it more popular than Epic Games’ battle royale hit Fortnite for the day.
First conceived in January 2017, Genshin Impact is an open-world, action adventure game that lets users play as young, magic-conjuring warriors journeying through a post-apocalyptic world. With its anime and fairy tale-like visuals, the game positions itself to appeal to gamers of all ages.
Analysts said that the high-flying success of Genshin Impact is yet another sign of the growing technical and marketing prowess of China in the video games space. Furthermore, miHoYo’s push to launch its game across multiple platforms, not only in China but also across the world, underlines the ambition of leading Chinese developers to reach a global audience.
According to app tracking firm Qimai Data, Genshin Impact is already the second top-grossing app on Apple’s App Store in China, ahead of ByteDance’s Chinese short-video hit Douyin [the sister app of international version TikTok]. As of publication, the game had grossed more than US$1.84 million on iOS according to Qimai’s estimates.