The revenue of domestic mobile games, particularly “Genshin Impact,” cannot be overlooked. According to market estimates, “Genshin Impact” generated nearly 300 billion RMB in revenue in its first year, making it a legend in the domestic mobile gaming market. Now, another year has passed, how is “Genshin Impact” performing? Can it maintain the level of its first year?
In its second year, the total estimated revenue of “Genshin Impact” is around 30 billion US dollars. Assuming that Android revenue is approximately 1.4 times that of iOS revenue, along with PC and console income, the total domestic revenue for the second year is estimated at around 1 billion US dollars. Although MiHoYo has not gone public and its financial reports are somewhat difficult to obtain, according to data from Bilibili YouTuber “Observation of Domestic Anime Mobile Games,” the total revenue of “Genshin Impact” in its second year is estimated at around 3.4 billion RMB, or about 420 million US dollars. This is also in line with the data showing that in the global market, “Genshin Impact” held about 30% of the market share last year.
Due to the significant estimation errors, the second year’s revenue should be roughly on par with the first year. This can also be seen in the game’s popularity. According to Google Trends, the average search index for “Genshin Impact” globally was 47.25 in its first year, rising to 67.13 in its second year, indicating that its popularity has remained steady.
Additionally, according to the rankings released by data.ai, in 2022, MiHoYo not only ranked second in overseas revenue but also topped the list for the highest revenue growth overseas. This clearly shows that “Genshin Impact” has indeed become MiHoYo’s top earner.
The revenue from characters is also a significant factor in maintaining the game’s popularity. The character Linhua Shenri, for instance, earned 36 million US dollars, creating a single character pool myth. Even popular characters like Zhongli and Carol are far behind. In contrast, the streamer’s income from the Leliana re-release pool exceeded six million US dollars, securing the title of “Strongest Streamer.” However, the income from the re-release pool of the Water-type character Xinchai was only 5.8 million US dollars, while the second re-release pool of Gongzi only earned 7.7 million US dollars. These figures, while containing some water, reflect the company’s investment in character re-releases.
Despite making money, MiHoYo has chosen to reinvest its earnings into development and various activities. It is said that the team size of “Genshin Impact” exceeds 1,000 people, and the development costs after the 3.0 version release have exceeded 5 billion US dollars, which is enough to develop two “Grand Theft Auto V.” Players can clearly feel the improvement in gameplay, with more refined and thoughtful map designs, as well as a rapid pace of introducing new maps. In just one year, seven map updates were released, with very few long grass periods. The company has also been very active in organizing offline events, such as conventions, concerts, and birthday parties. Although some activities were canceled due to the pandemic, collaborations with brands like Alipay and Lawson won the approval of many players.
In summary, “Genshin Impact” has been able to maintain its popularity for two years mainly due to MiHoYo’s consistent “all-in” strategy. From “Genshin Impact,” MiHoYo has consistently invested all its revenue into development, creating one hit after another. Although players are very happy to see the game continually improve, whether MiHoYo can take this path further remains to be seen.