New data from Sensor Tower has revealed that free-to-play gacha game Genshin Impact scooped up a colossal amount of money within only its first month of launch on mobile, beating many other app store strongholds to the top spot.
While Genshin Impact initially got a reputation for its similarity to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, its diverse selection of playable characters, intricate elemental magic system, and gripping story set the RPG apart from games like it.
For a free-to-play game it has extraordinary depth, but the way that developer miHoYo monetizes the game is via the divisive ‘gacha’ system.
Players can take a shot at winning their favorite character via the wish system, and while the game allows you to use some wishes for free, in order to have a shot at zoning in on the one character you want, players will need to spend real-world money to purchase wishes.
Genshin Impact’s extraordinary revenue
New data from Sensor Tower published on October 28 reveals that Genshin Impact has raked in a huge amount of money within its first month, September 28 to October 27.
Just on mobile platforms alone, the game earned a whopping $245 million dollars, a crazy amount of money considering it’s a free-to-play application.
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For this period, Genshin has absolutely obliterated other high-earning games that remain staples of the app store such as Honor of Kings ($216 million), PUBG ($195 million), and global hit Pokemon Go ($122 million).
The gacha mechanic has clearly paid off for miHoYo in this instance, with streamers and YouTubers across the world spending thousands of real-world dollars on obtaining their favorite characters.
Some have even blasted the game for being “predatory,” one streamer saying “I think this system is gambling. I can’t believe that this exists in a game. And I refuse to promote it. I can’t do it and I’m so sorry that I did.”
Regardless of people’s opinion on the mechanic, it doesn’t look like the success of the game is slowing down, with Genshin still ranking high on Twitch, and many popular streamers giving the RPG a try.
