Published in September 2020, Genshin Impact has quickly shot up the rank among the top-grossing mobile games worldwide. In May 2025, the mobile app generated approximately 27.7 million U.S. dollars in in-app purchases. The open-world action RPG title uses a gacha game monetization system and is available for several platforms and claims the title of the fastest gaming app to reach 5 billion U.S. dollars in global player spending. Anime-style open world online games Inspired by Genshin’s success story, many other app publishers have tried to recapture the game’s success. Chinese app developers, in particular, have been homing in on the anime-style open world fantasy genre, though none of these releases have managed to reach Genshin’s level of impact. Tower of Fantasy, developed by Hotta Studio, was published in December 2021, making it one of the earlier entries of the genre. Not putting all its eggs in one basket, Genshin publisher miHoYo also released another game with similar mechanics to GI, the space fantasy RPG Honkai: Star Rail. While not reaching Genshin’s runaway financial success, Honkai: Star Rail has managed to prove itself a financial success in its own right. In May 2024, Kuro Games released the highly anticipated Wuthering Waves. Wuthering Waves’ mobile app accumulated over 20 million U.S. dollars in IAP revenues within 10 days of release, showing that gaming audiences are still hungry for open world online games. The success of online anime RPGs is not guaranteed Despite the popularity of the genre, games in this segment are not automatically poised for success. Japanese publisher Bandai Namco also created an anime MMORPG, Blue Protocol. Originally planned for a worldwide multi-platform release with Amazon as a global publisher in 2023, the game received a Japan-only launch in the summer of 2023, the Korean launch was moved to 2024 and then infinitely paused. Despite a strong launch, the game has fizzled out and Japanese gamers have criticized Blue Protocol for the lack of engaging features, bugs, and lack of serious content updates, highlighting Bandai’s inability to tap into the genre and keep up with online gaming trends despite its status as an AAA-level video gaming company.

Genshin Impact is an action role-playing game, set in a fantasy open-world of nations with four interchangeable characters. Players can level up characters’ abilities for use in battle, and...

Genshin Impact is a free-to-play cross-platform action RPG. On mobile, Genshin Impact is particularly popular in Japan, where players generated an average revenue per download of 102.53 U.S. dollars. Singapore ranked second, with a cumulative RPD of 64.86 U.S. dollars. Genshin Impact – a free-to-play success story With an annual IAP revenue of 1.56 billion U.S. dollars, Genshin Impact is one of the highest-grossing mobile games of 2023. The game was released in September 2020 and initial reviews were mixed, describing the setting and theme as a clone of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. However, this stance was quickly abandoned by critics as Genshin Impact came into its own. The game features regular content releases to keep the player engaged as the story continues to evolve and new characters and regions are revealed. In August 2024, Genshin Impact launched the content update 5.0 which featured the new Natlan region and several new characters, quests, and in-game events. Genshin Impact is a live service game, also known as the Games-as-a-Service (GaaS), which is one of the strongest-growing revenue models in gaming right now. Gacha monetization mechanics In addition to the live service model, Genshin Impact is also a successful example of the gacha monetization trend in mobile games. Similar to loot boxes, a gacha system leads the player to spend in-game currency to receive random in-game items. In Genshin Impact, the gacha system is implemented via several so-called banners featuring characters or weapons which only are available for a limited amount of time. Spending in-game currency on these banners is the main way of unlocking new characters in the game. Players can earn the necessary currency either via completing game quests or through purchases in the virtual item shop with real money.In October 2024, Genshin Impact’s monthly mobile app revenue amounted to 35 million U.S. dollars, with China, Japan, and the United States leading in terms of revenue.

As of June 2025, mobile Genshin Impact players in the China had generated 1.72 billion U.S. dollars worth of IAP revenues. Japan was the second-largest market for the free-to-play RPG, with over 1 billion U.S. dollars in in-app purchase revenues. The United States were ranked third.

The mobile game "Genshin Impact" generated a monthly app revenue of about ** million U.S. dollars in Japan in December 2024. The total app revenue during that year amounted to approximately ****** million dollars. The action role-playing game (RPG) was developed by the Shanghai-based development studio miHoYo Co., Ltd. and released in September 2020.

The global gacha game market, encompassing popular titles like Genshin Impact and Raid: Shadow Legends, is a rapidly expanding sector within the mobile gaming industry. While the provided data states a 2025 market size of $804 million, a logical estimation of the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) is needed to provide a complete picture. Considering the significant popularity and consistent revenue generation of gacha games, a conservative CAGR estimate of 15% for the forecast period (2025-2033) seems reasonable, reflecting both sustained growth and potential market saturation in later years. This implies substantial market expansion, with potential to exceed $3 billion by 2033. Key drivers include the engaging gameplay loop, the collectible nature of characters, and the integration of social elements fostering community and competition. Trends point towards increasingly sophisticated graphics, immersive storylines, and broader cross-platform accessibility. However, potential restraints include concerns around monetization strategies perceived as predatory by some players and growing competition from other mobile game genres. The market is segmented by game type (Card, RPG, Others) and platform (Android, iOS), with RPGs currently dominating market share. Regional analysis indicates strong performance in North America and Asia-Pacific, with considerable growth potential in emerging markets. The diverse range of successful gacha games demonstrates the genre's adaptability. While titles like Genshin Impact showcase expansive open worlds and high-quality graphics, others such as Fire Emblem Heroes cater to fans of established franchises. This diversification ensures a broad appeal, attracting both casual and hardcore gamers. The continued investment in game development, marketing, and the expansion into new regions will fuel further market growth. However, sustained success requires continuous innovation and a focus on responsible monetization practices to maintain player engagement and positive brand perception. The market's trajectory suggests a bright future for gacha games, provided developers adapt to evolving player preferences and industry trends.

Genshin Impact, developed by miHoYo, was the second best-selling mobile game in the world in November 2023. China was the leading market for the action role-playing game, contributing almost ** percent of the total app revenue that month. Players from ***** and the ************* were the biggest spenders on the game.

Comprehensive revenue analytics and insights for mobile gacha games

In 2024, Shanghai-based gaming giant miHoYo generated approximately **** billion U.S. dollars in IAP revenues. miHoYo's innovation and gaming excellence have solidified its position as a prominent Chinese game developer with a global reach. The company unveiled its global publishing subsidiary, Cognosphere, in February 2022. The new Chinese gaming star Founded in 2011 with a dedication to quality, miHoYo has been delivering visually stunning gaming experiences, attracting millions of players worldwide. Between 2020 and 2022, the company’s annual revenue increased by **** folds. The game developer is renowned for role-playing game (RPG) hits — Genshin Impact (2020) and Honkai: Star Rail (2023), and Zenless Zone Zero (2024). miHoYo's two blockbusters The company's flagship title, Genshin Impact, has not only earned critical acclaim but has also served as a financial juggernaut. Within the first six months of its release in 2020, the title achieved over ****billion U.S. dollars in revenue. In April 2023, miHoYo released another cross-platform space fantasy game, Honkai: Star Rail, generating over ** million app downloads worldwide in five months. Intricate storytelling, captivating visual elements, and consistent updates are some of the elements which lead to miHoYo's success. With a track record of innovation and financial prowess, miHoYo's future in the gaming industry remains exceptionally promising.

Released in September 2020, Genshin Impact was instantly a smash hit, accumulating well over 237 million lifetime downloads to date. In May 2025, the Genshin Impact app generated 2.41 million downloads worldwide, with monthly in-app purchase revenues of 27.7 million U.S. dollars. The action RPG takes places in a fantasy setting anime world and has been praised for its high production values. Genshin Impact also ranks among the fastest mobile games to generate 100 million U.S. dollars in player spending, a feat that the app managed in 13 days.

Published in May 2024, Wuthering Wave already generated close to 20 million U.S. dollars in IAP revenues within 10 days of release and over 233 million U.S. dollars in lifetime gross. The free-to-play action role-playing game was developed and published by Kuro Games and has been compared to Genshin Impact due to a similar setting and monetization mechanics. In May 2025, Wuthering Waves made 22.08 million U.S. dollars in IAP revenues.

Genshin Impact was the top-grossing mobile gacha game worldwide in the first quarter of 2022, generating approximately 567 million U.S. dollars in mobile revenues. Second-ranked Lineage W saw users spending 272 million U.S. dollars on in-game items. Players can spend in-game currently to pull on a randomized selection of characters or items. Gacha mechanics are comparable to loot boxes and are a popular monetization strategy for free-to-play games.

In May 2025, the retail gaming revenue in the United States amounted to **** billion U.S. dollars. When examining specific segment revenues, accessories were the lowest-performing segment at retail overall, while video gaming content accounted for the majority of consumer spending. Video game spending habits in the United States More than four in ten U.S. gamers across all platforms were willing to spend a maximum of ** to ** U.S. dollars on a video game. A November 2022 survey found that more than four in ten PC and console gamers stated so, while over three in ten mobile-only gamers said they only played free games. Console gamers were most comfortable spending money on their hobby at this price point. In 2023, total U.S. consumer spending on video game content amounted to **** billion U.S. dollars, a one percent increase from **** billion U.S. dollars in the preceding year. Game releases are planned around the holiday season What is very specific to the industry at large is that the highest monthly revenues occur around the holiday season in November and December of each year. The entire market revolves around maximizing sales during the season, and most new game releases of high-budget, high-profile titles (so-called AAA games) are planned shortly before the winter holidays. Many of these annual blockbuster releases see releases from late Q3 onwards: EA Sports FC usually releases in late September, and new games in Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty series are launched between late October and early November.For the holiday season 2023, blockbusters Baldur’s Gate 3 and Starfield had already started the season of major video game releases. Other AAA titles that are also taking advantage of the Christmas shopping release window are the Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty DLC, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 as well as the Nintendo Switch release of Hogwarts Legacy and the PS5 port of mobile gaming title Honkai Star Rail by Genshin Impact publisher MiHoYo.

In 2022, the annual revenue of miHoYo Co., Ltd amounted to about ***** billion yuan. The Chinese game developer is best known for its anime-style game Genshin Impact. Since its release in September 2020, the action role-playing game has become one of the highest-earning titles in the world. Within *** months, it achieved one billion U.S. dollars in player spending, the fastest mobile gaming app was able to do that. In April 2023, miHoYo released another role-playing anime game Honkai: Star Rail and raked in over *** million U.S. dollars within three months.

Released on August 19, 2024, and selling 10 million copies within three days, Black Myth: Wukong is one of the fastest-selling video games of all time. Heralded as the Chinese video game industry's first AAA video game production, the title was released on PC and PS5 with an Xbox version following shortly. Black Myth: Wukong was published by Game Science, which is backed by Tencent Gaming, one of the biggest gaming companies in China and worldwide. Lifetime unit sales of Black Myth: Wukong are currently at 25 million units. A record-breaking game release After first teasing the game in 2020, the anticipation for Black Myth: Wukong was extremely high. The title made headlines when Game Science revealed that it would transition the game’s development to the newly released game engine Unreal 5, making it one of the first major titles to do so. This hype caused the game to top charts as soon as pre-orders became available in summer 2024. Apart from selling an unprecedented number of copies within just a few days, Black Myth: Wukong crushed the competition in terms of user engagement, setting records as the second-most played video games on Steam based on peak concurrent players. A week post release, Wukong claimed over 2.4 million peak concurrent users on PC, ranking only behind PUBG, which is even more impressive considering that PUBG is a free-to-play online multiplayer title. Most Black Myth: Wukong’s sales are domestic, based on the fact that the majority of the over half a million reviews on Steam are in Chinese. Additionally, Chinese gamers accounted for about a third of Steam audiences, with nearly 32 percent of Steam users having Simplified Chinese and another 1.2 percent using Traditional Chinese as the language for the PC gaming platform. China’s gaming industry is starting to take off internationally Despite being the biggest video gaming market worldwide based on revenue, the Chinese gaming industry has been hampered by a gaming console ban (which has now been lifted), as well as strict regulations regarding video game releases and gaming consumption among citizens. Some of these strict regulations have caused raised eyebrows during the release of Black Myth: Wukong, as gaming content creators and streamers revealed they had been sent a list of topics to avoid talking about while livestreaming the game. Despite these growing pains, the Chinese gaming industry has been gaining international traction in recent years. Limited to mobile or domestic releases for long, China is now known for leading the way in free-to-play action role-playing titles like Genshin Impact, which gave rise to an entire genre of anime-style open-world online games. There are several factors that play into the popularity of Black Myth: Wukong. One of the key factors of the action game’s success is the source material – the main character of Black Myth: Wukong is based on Sun Wukong, or the Monkey King, a key character in Journey to the West, a beloved piece of classic Chinese literature which has inspired hundreds of interpretations on TV shows, cartoons, movies, and other media adaptions. The cultural relevance of the topic can be regarded as a soft-power move to promote Chinese culture through media content, which is currently booming internationally as Chinese TV drama productions are also gaining more international popularity among Western audiences.

China's mobile game market is vibrant. In July 2025, Tencent's flagship title, Honor of Kings, was the highest-grossing game app in the country, raking in over *** million U.S. dollars in revenue. PUBG Mobile remained second with over ** million U.S. dollars. The much anticipated *********** came in the third spot, earning over ** million U.S. dollars. Whiteout Survival, Love and Deepspace, and Dungeon & Fighter: Origins, followed with less than ** million U.S. dollars. The long-term winners: Tencent and NetEase For many years, Tencent and NetEase have been the most successful Chinese game developers, holding the lion’s share of mobile gaming traffic. The former owns the super app WeChat and an extensive network of entertainment offerings. The mobile gaming business has been one of Tencent's profit pillars, contributing nearly ** percent of its annual revenue (*** billion yuan) in 2022. In comparison, NetEase was half the size of Tencent—** billion yuan in online game revenue in 2024. The industry challenger: miHoYo Having arrived at the gaming scene relatively late in 2011, the Chinese studio miHoYo took eight years to catch global attention. In September 2020, the company grabbed the right timing to launch Genshin Impact during the pandemic. The role-playing game achieved *** billion U.S. dollars of revenue within a year of release and continues to be a lucrative title in various markets. The company later released *** more blockbuster games, Honkai: Star Rail in 2023 and Zenless Zone Zero in 2024.