The release of Genshin Impact on PS4, mobile, and PC has not only caught many by surprise but has also captured a lot of attention. According to analysts at Beijing’s Qimai Data, the new multiplayer RPG has raked in an estimated $1.84 million USD on iOS alone, and landed more Twitch views on its launch day than Fortnite. According to TwitchTracker.com, Genshin peaked at 214,000 concurrent viewers on September 29th, while Fortnite peaked at only 150,000 that same day, though both were bested by several other titles, including League of Legends. (It’s certainly a trending title on Twitch, but it’s barely breaking into the top 10 several days later.)
Multiple publications have proclaimed it the single biggest international release for a Chinese-developed video game, quoting Kantan Games Inc.’s Serkan Toto, who pointed to the staggering number of pre-registrations (over 10M, according to developer miHoYo) the game had outside China. It may be exaggeration, but it’s certainly hard to think of many truly Chinese-grown titles that have made a bigger international impact in recent years.
The success of Genshin Impact is being attributed to the growing technical and marketing prowess of China gamedev, while miHoYo’s push to launch the title in multiple regions around the globe and on multiple platforms illustrates the ambition of Chinese game companies to expand into a wider market.
The game’s release hasn’t been without its share of controversy, however. Genshin Impact and Rise of Kingdoms were both pulled the Huawei and Xiaomi app stores in protest of each storefront’s 50% platform tax, while the developers of Genshin have had to close up kernel-level access opened by the game’s anti-cheat program. Still, though, it appears that this one is catching a lot of hearts and minds (as well as dollars).
