Developer miHoYo continues to generate an incredible amount of profit from its open-world game, as Genshin Impact revenue was close to $400 million on mobile alone over its first two months available. Genshin Impact is a game heavily inspired by Breath of the Wild in the way its open world is designed, giving players a bit more direction when it comes to questing but otherwise preserving the same feeling of exploration as a primary interest driver.
That isn't to say that the gameplay of Genshin Impact lives and dies by world exploration alone, however, as the title also implements some savvy combat systems that use elemental damage modifiers, party composition, and more to help deepen its tactical appeal. The result has been a wildly successful game that continues to generate money for miHoYo, with Genshin Impact revenue exceeding $60 million in its first week and maintaining a torrid pace since then. Part of that can be attributed to the game's nature as a gacha game with premium currency - some players with excess cash will gladly sink in thousands to have the best team - but plenty of players are much more frugal with their gacha spending, and Genshin Impact still appeals thanks to fairly accessible premium currency as part of login bonuses, events, and more.
According to a report from SensorTower, Genshin Impact revenue has now reached approximately $393 million on mobile alone over a span of two months, tracked from September 28 to November 28. That places the game ahead of PUBG Mobile and Pokemon GO in the same span and behind Honor of Kings, but there one element of the report suggests Genshin Impact could be slowing down to fall closer in line with its top-tier competitors. While the game made nearly $250 million in its first month, that dropped to close to $150 million in its second, though that could be because many players got the characters they were chasing in the interim - meaning new releases, like Zhongli, could send those numbers back up.
It's also worth noting that the report doesn't factor in Genshin Impact revenue generated by its PC and PS4 versions, which are likely pretty high in their own right. While mobile spending seems like the best platform to analyze Genshin Impact's revenue and success overall due to how accessible it is on iOS and Android devices, it doesn't present as clear a picture as a more thorough analysis of its profitability on all platforms.
Even without the PS4 and PC figures, though, Genshin Impact revenue on mobile alone is already absurd. The game is currently making money at a pace equivalent to earning $6 million a day just from mobile players, and with a content lull that hasn't seen a huge dropoff in players, it seems likely those figures could become inflated again each time something major comes to the game. Genshin Impact is one of the most intriguing games of 2020, and it will be interesting to see just how far it can go in 2021 and beyond.
Source: SensorTower