Genshin Impact Had More Viewers Than Fortnite, Took In $50 Million In First Week (UPDATED)

Jason Winter
By Jason Winter, News Editor Posted:
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Genshin Impact is off to a good start. How good? Does "bigger than Fortnite" sound good enough?

The South China Morning Post is reporting that miHoYo's free-to-play online RPG had "more views on Twitch than Fortnite on launch day" and raked in more income than TikTok, in what is being called "the biggest international launch of a Chinese game in history." It had over 110,000 concurrent viewers in Twitch, topping Fortnite and receiving generally good reviews from throughout the internet.

According to the SCMP, the reason for the success is due in large part to miHoYo's push to launch the game globally across multiple platforms. It's still a big deal in its native China, though, being #2 on Apple's App Store in China and grossing $1.84 million USD. According to one industry consultant, "I don’t think any Chinese-made game has ever had that many pre-registrations outside its home market." Another expert called it "surely ambitious," with the potential for miHoYo to have a "super hit on their hands in the long run."

It's not all good news, though. Genshin Impact was pulled from the Huawei and Xiaomi app stores "in protest at the 50 per cent platform tax imposed by the smartphone companies" and miHoYo took some flak for a security loophole provided by aggressive anti-cheat software. But it's off to a good start and could be the surprise hit of 2020.

UPDATE, Oct. 5: How big of a hit? Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad has his estimates, and they're pretty huge:

With $50 million in its first week -- already covering its development costs -- Ahmad thinks that Genshin Impact could top the $100 million mark in worldwide revenue by the end of the month. Despite being only nominally multiplayer, Genshin Impact could go down as the biggest MMORPG launch of 2020.

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About the Author

Jason Winter
Jason Winter, News Editor

Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.

More Stories by Jason Winter

Discussion (5)

Urthemiel 3 years ago
Nope.exe

Deathloche 3 years ago
its a pretty fun game with much to do. i love playing it. just wish it had true multiplayer co op

Llamawaffle 3 years ago
For anyone that hasn't tried it yet, the game has a stamina system and all the good characters are behind an INSANE pay wall. The content is all frontloaded into the first 25-27 levels. Frontloading all the content is actually very smart. It accomplishes two things. 1. People reviewing the game probably won't make it far enough to review the game accurately. 2. Gets you hooked into thinking the entire game is what the game is at the beginning. In reality, it's an extremely polished and well thought out game, but it's a daily quest simulator passed a certain point and the ONLY way to unlock new characters are through extremely pricey lootboxes (called wishes). Stamina systems don't work in the west, especially when you can pay real money to gain more (to an extent). I give this game 6 months.

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rickshaw 3 years ago
Its a game you can jump in and out of now and then. It needed a mmo route over this one and along with its blatant identity crisis leading to something wild, when it could of easily been original with its own artwork that's in play.


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