Genshin Impact reaches $1 billion in mobile player spending in just 6 months

[Polycount]

In context: Genshin Impact took the mobile market by storm when it launched on Android and iOS in September of 2020. Its open-ended, Breath of the Wild-like exploration mechanics and addictive, gacha-style character collecting has been a recipe for success, allowing the game to gross a whopping $245 million in its first month -- on mobile alone.

The popular free-to-play title has surpassed milestone after milestone in the months since. It generated a total of $874 million in five months on the App Store and the Google Play Store, and now, it's surpassed the $1 billion mark, just one month later, according to a new report from Sensor Tower.

That makes Genshin Impact the "fastest" freemium mobile title to reach the $1 billion milestone, followed by Pokémon Go, Lineage M, and Clash Royale. Those games took 9, 10, and 11 months to hit that figure, respectively.

There are many reasons for Genshin Impact's breakout success, but its regular content drops certainly make the biggest difference. Whenever developer miHoYo releases a new character, for example, it easily rakes in over $10 million for that month (with some exceptions).

With the December release of "Zhongli," player spending increased to $15.5 million, and more recently, Hu Tao's March 2 launch led players to collectively shell out about $12.9 million.

Whether or not Genshin Impact can maintain this astronomical growth in the long term remains to be seen, but for now, it's clear that miHoYo has struck gold. You can download Genshin Impact here.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/89057-genshin-impact-reaches-1-billion-mobile-player-spending.html

 

[stewi0001]

I'm still shocked at how much people spend on these games.

 

[Dimitriid]

Well if you combine 2 things that make young adults very vulnerable: Anime aesthetic and gambling, you certainly got a winner.

Seriously most of these mobile games get to be so big basically through those stories of "Kid spends 10,000 on X game, publishers refuse to refund it!" but on a slightly smaller scale: it's usually either caught at a lower amount or with parents rich enough that they don't care their kids uses like a grand a month on loot boxes on his iphone.

EDIT: Ok in the case of this game or Fortnite, it's appealing more to the collectible aspect and social pressure, but it still manipulates impressionable kids and young adults into making a really bad decision with their money. Just a tad less predatory than outright gambling, but predatory nonetheless.

 

[dangh]

Oh, this game is fun and you can fly enjoy it without spending a penny. It is fun, nice experience for everyone.
But people should be very careful with spending money on it. That is true for any game or not a game. Kids never should have access to this kind of money and it's parents fault if they don't keep eye on expenses.

 

[Kosmoz]

I'm still shocked at how much people spend on these games.

You're not the only one.

It's clear that I'm getting old, but for me spending money on a mobile game is plain stupid, the entire concept... meh.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

You're not the only one.

It's clear that I'm getting old, but for me spending money on a mobile game is plain stupid, the entire concept... meh.

I don't put money to any mobile game - but a lot of people tend to justify the costs of low end in-game purchases. They think things like this:
- I spend $8 a day on coffee....spending $5 a day on the game isn't as bad as me throwing money away in expensive coffee.

 

[SG736F6]

Years ago I worked with a guy who claimed to spend $300-500 per month, between him and his wife, on online mobile and PC games they played together. This doesn't surprise me.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

I don't understand kids these days.

Puts phone down and goes back to real life motorcycle racing.

 

[Kosmoz]

I don't put money to any mobile game - but a lot of people tend to justify the costs of low end in-game purchases. They think things like this:
- I spend $8 a day on coffee....spending $5 a day on the game isn't as bad as me throwing money away in expensive coffee.

Of course there is logic, but that does not mean is a sound one...

For example, I don't drink coffee, never did... nor do I smoke/do drugs (of any kind) or drink alcohol. So I don't fall in this spending trap so easily on anything, actually.

There is a correlation on how many vices you have and the tendency to adopt more and more over time, or at least get deeper and deeper into one of them. Few people can stop at having only one vice all their life, and a moderate one too. Once down the rabbit hole, it's hard to stop or come back...

This also explains lots of other things, like the fools with more money than sense that pay the scalper prices for GPUs/consoles these days. They are the same.

It's a psychological conditioning of instant gratification and indulging in any and every wish and desire that you can possibly have. That's what happens when you don't have some self imposed limits of common sense and healthy moral sense limitations for a balanced life.

 

[Puiu]

While I haven't put any money into the game (I do play it sometimes on PC, not on mobile), I can understand why some do it. It's a really good game and it's worth buying 1 or 2 things (although I disagree with whales that put way too much money into it).

Just be responsible with your money.

 

[shraddha3095]

But too much video game playing may cause problems. It's hard to get enough active play and exercise if you're always inside playing video games. And without enough exercise, kids can become overweight.

 

[stewi0001]

You're not the only one.

It's clear that I'm getting old, but for me spending money on a mobile game is plain stupid, the entire concept... meh.

I've met people, online, from another gacha game that have spent over $1000 USD just to attempt to unlock and collect the new stuff during one of the game updates.

 

[rrwards]

I think it's difficult to understand mobile game spending if you think these are people who are choosing a mobile game over a PC/console game. Casual/mobile-only gamers are becoming the majority and although I struggle to comprehend spending thousands on gacha games, I totally understand the people spending $5 - $10 a month on something like this.

 

[techdude1]

There are many kids and young people in China and Asia, maybe billions so it's not that surprising. On average they spend 1 $ each then we got the 1 billion $...

 

[Hollow]

But too much video game playing may cause problems. It's hard to get enough active play and exercise if you're always inside playing video games. And without enough exercise, kids can become overweight.

Kids don't become overweight because of too much videogames, they'll get overweight because we feed them too much junk food and even when they don't eat junk foods, most of the time they don't hit theirs macros so that's more because of general ignorance.

As any addiction, you shouldn't really care about it until you see you can't live like you used to and it starts to affect your health and financial security.

Spending a few hundreds euros or dollars per month in your hobbies is not something really problematic if you still manage to save a good amount of money on the side.

But if you don't have enough money at the end of the month you also still can access most content of the game as a free to play player. I believe the most famous genshin impact streamer is free to play.

Paying is up to you, it's still a great game even without paying. Also don't hate people who pay, should you hate people who buy popcorns at the theater? They are the ones paying so that you can have an even better experience tomorrow.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Paying is up to you, it's still a great game even without paying. Also don't hate people who pay, should you hate people who buy popcorns at the theater? They are the ones paying so that you can have an even better experience tomorrow.

Yes, I hate people that buy snacks and popcorn at the movies....rustling of paper, slurping of pop, crunching of food as they chomp down and eat with the mouths open....f'ing gross.

Then again, I don't go to movies anymore because those things bother me too much. Last movie I had to endure for all the nastiness of others around me and their slurping, chomping, paper crumpling noises was Despicable Me 3 because the kids wanted to really, really see it.

 

[Hollow]

Yes, I hate people that buy snacks and popcorn at the movies....rustling of paper, slurping of pop, crunching of food as they chomp down and eat with the mouths open....f'ing gross.

Then again, I don't go to movies anymore because those things bother me too much. Last movie I had to endure for all the nastiness of others around me and their slurping, chomping, paper crumpling noises was Despicable Me 3 because the kids wanted to really, really see it.

I eat most of my popcorns during the adds and also when there are some big sounds. I'm a quiet guy, I promise ;D