Genshin Impact
GameBy HoYoverse · Released Sep 28, 2020
Documents about Genshin Impact
Wuthering Waves: The Next Big Gacha Game in Live Streaming
The launch of Wuthering Waves marks a significant entry into the competitive gacha gaming market, challenging established titles like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail.
- Wuthering Waves generated 10.1 million hours watched across all streaming platforms during its debut week, peaking at just under 200,000 concurrent viewers.
- The game launched with significant technical issues, including crashes and animation glitches, which were mitigated by rapid developer patches and the distribution of free in-game currency to players.
- Gacha streamer Tectone was a major driver of engagement, contributing 919,000 hours watched, which accounted for nearly 10% of the game's total debut week viewership.
Meta Aggregated Event Measurement, Harry Potter flop in the West, Admon apocalypse tests (#73)
The digital advertising landscape is undergoing a significant contraction as Google Ad Manager prepares to remove AdX demand for resellers on October 31.
- Google’s upcoming removal of Google Ad Manager reseller demand and the transition to bidding on October 31st is expected to cause a 5% to 12% revenue decline for publishers.
- Meta’s new Aggregated Event Measurement tool is causing significant implementation challenges and confusion, with some practitioners reporting that it conflicts with existing SKAdNetwork measurement.
- Meta is increasingly pushing for the integration of its own SDK to replace or bypass Mobile Measurement Partners (MMPs), raising concerns regarding data impartiality and reliance on Meta's internal statistical modeling.
Chinese Publishers in Live Streaming: Tencent, AI, and Esports
Chinese game publishers are currently navigating a complex landscape defined by regulatory uncertainty, shifting consumer preferences, and a drive toward technological innovation.
- Tencent dominated the Q1 2024 live-streaming landscape with 636 million hours watched, significantly outperforming second-place publisher Moonton, which recorded 101 million hours.
- League of Legends remains the top title for Chinese publishers with 478 million hours watched in Q1 2024, though only 4.9% of this viewership originated from Chinese audiences.
- Mobile gaming continues to gain traction, evidenced by the strong performance of titles like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (79.9 million hours) and PUBG Mobile (46.6 million hours).
Genshin Impact Becomes Fastest Mobile Game to Hit $5 Billion in Player Spending
Genshin Impact has achieved a significant financial milestone, becoming the fastest mobile game to reach $5 billion in lifetime player spending.
- Genshin Impact reached $5 billion in lifetime player spending in 40 months, making it the fastest mobile game to achieve this milestone.
- The game is one of only 13 mobile titles in history to surpass $5 billion in total revenue.
- China is the leading market for the game with $1.5 billion in iOS spending, followed by Japan at $1.06 billion and the United States at $903 million.
Overwolf Devs Newsletter: December 2023
The December 2023 Overwolf developer update serves as a strategic briefing for the platform’s creator community, focusing on monetization opportunities, advertising trends, and technical platform enhancements.
- Overwolf has extended its 'Revshare-Free 2024' subscription offer via Tebex until January 15th, allowing developers to keep 100% of subscription revenue for the year.
- The platform has finalized its subscription API and released an updated sample app, enabling developers to begin integrating paid subscription models immediately upon passing review.
- Overwolf is scaling 'Moment-Triggered Ads' to connect major brands like KFC, Intel, P&G, and Monster with gamers in a cost-efficient, in-game format.
2023’s Most-Read Stories: Unity’s Runtime Fee Fiasco, Playtika, Apex Legends Mobile and More
The mobile games industry experienced a tumultuous 2023, characterized by significant corporate controversies, studio closures, and shifting monetization strategies.
- Unity’s 2023 'Runtime Fee' policy triggered a massive developer backlash, resulting in a partial pricing reversal, a decline in its ad exchange business by up to 30%, and the eventual departure of CEO John Riccitiello.
- EA signaled a broader industry trend of studio closures and layoffs in January 2023 by canceling 'Apex Legends Mobile' and shuttering the 'Battlefield Mobile' developer Industrial Toys after the game's revenue flatlined.
- Playtika suspended all new game development in early 2023, citing an unfavorable marketing landscape and poor ROI, reflecting a wider industry shift toward consolidation and optimization of existing assets.
Zenless Zone Zero: First look! Everything we know from Closed Beta (#88)
HoYoverse continues to solidify its dominance in the global gaming market by applying a highly refined, high-production-value gacha model to its latest title, Zenless Zone Zero.
- HoYoverse employs a standardized, highly profitable template for its gacha-based titles, allowing the company to develop new games in roughly half the time required by Western studios.
- Zenless Zone Zero utilizes a gacha monetization model identical to Honkai: Star Rail, featuring a 1% base pull rate for top-tier characters and a pity system that guarantees an S-rank character after 50 pulls.
- The game features a complex progression system with six equipment slots and randomized stats, requiring players to repeatedly farm artifacts to achieve optimal character builds.
Roblox Hits $7 Billion in Player Spending on Mobile
The mobile version of Roblox has reached a significant financial milestone, surpassing $7 billion in cumulative player spending.
- Roblox has surpassed $7 billion in cumulative mobile player spending, with direct in-app purchase revenue accounting for approximately $4.2 billion of that total.
- The United States is the primary market for Roblox, representing 58% of total mobile revenue and 20% of the platform's nearly 1 billion global downloads.
- As of late 2023, Roblox is the world's most downloaded free-to-play mobile game with over 190 million installs year-to-date.
The Genius Game Design of Genshin Impact’s Login Screen - Extra Credits
Effective game design often operates on a subconscious level, utilizing the initial moments of a player’s experience—such as login screens, loading sequences, and opening music—to prime them for the intended gameplay loop.
- Effective game design utilizes the login screen and loading sequences to subconsciously prime players for the intended gameplay experience, ensuring their expectations align with the game's core loop.
- Genshin Impact’s login screen uses calm music and imagery of ruins and infinite paths to establish an atmosphere of exploration and wonder, steering players away from high-intensity action expectations.
- Designers must identify the core 'hook' of their game and reinforce that specific fantasy through every element of the opening, including music, visuals, and load-time transitions.
Global Mobile Games in August: August 2023
The August 2023 snapshot of the global mobile gaming market highlights a mix of sustained franchise performance and emerging titles. In revenue, MONOPOLY GO! dominated the U.S.
- MONOPOLY GO! led the U.S. App Store in August 2023 with $72.5 million in revenue, marking a 67% increase over July.
- Casual and idle games saw massive download spikes, led by My Perfect Hotel with 5.3 million iOS downloads (a 10x increase) and Football League 2023 with 16.5 million Google Play downloads (a 180% MoM increase).
- High-end titles maintained strong revenue, with Fate/Grand Order surpassing $7 billion in lifetime earnings and MiHoYo’s Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact generating $47.2 million and $17.8 million respectively.
miHoYo’s Honkai: Star Rail Sponsors Chinese Dota 2 Teams LGD Gaming and AR for The International
In October 2023, the game developer miHoYo announced a sponsorship deal between its role-playing title, Honkai: Star Rail, and two prominent Chinese Dota 2 teams, LGD Gaming and AzureRay.
- miHoYo’s game Honkai: Star Rail has secured sponsorship deals with Chinese Dota 2 teams LGD Gaming and AzureRay for The International 2023.
- This partnership marks a rare instance of a video game developer sponsoring an esports team competing in a title developed by a different company, Valve.
- The sponsorship branding, featuring the Honkai: Star Rail logo, will appear on the jerseys of both LGD Gaming and AzureRay during the tournament held in Seattle from October 12–29, 2023.
Is It Time to Rethink the “Game of the Year” Award for Mobile?
The mobile gaming industry’s current approach to "Game of the Year" (GOTY) awards is fundamentally flawed due to a disconnect between creative recognition and actual business performance.
- Current 'Game of the Year' awards for mobile games fail to correlate with sustained spikes in downloads or revenue, as performance trends are primarily driven by seasonal content and marketing events.
- Analysis of Marvel SNAP, Apex Legends Mobile, and Genshin Impact between 2021 and 2023 shows that award wins are additive at best rather than causal drivers of commercial success.
- The existing awards framework is criticized as a marketing vehicle for platforms like Apple and Google rather than an objective measure of creative quality or business performance.