Genshin Impact Unlocks a Treasure

Genshin Impact recently released an update that gave it the biggest bump in revenue it's ever seen, and by a lot.

Net revenue in Genshin Impact's three largest markets, which include the U.S., China, and Japan, nearly quadrupled in the last week. Our estimates show daily net revenue averaged $1.2M in the three markets during August. On Wednesday, that total grew to $2.5M, peaked at $3.9M two days later, and ended Tuesday with $2.8M. Still more than double.

MiHoYo isn't some indie developer that got lucky overnight, and Genshin Impact isn't some unknown title that exploded on TikTok, so you may dismiss this. If growth were half, I'd skip it too, but that's not the case.

Genshin Impact's revenue grew by a silly amount across both the U.S. and China, the two largest revenue contributors to games. Not many games managed to achieve that.

If we zoom out a bit and connect this with other trends I've explored here before, we can quickly see why China's limitation on gameplay time is problematic for game developers, why game developers need to localize, and as important, why game developers will eventually all bow to government restrictions on how the game is designed, a trend I foresee eventually making its way back to the U.S.