How does Genshin Impact make money?
As a free-to-play game, Genshin Impact generates revenue through in-app purchases and a "gacha" monetization system. Players can spend real money on random chances to unlock rare characters, weapons, and materials. While completely optional, these mechanics incentivize spending for progression and collection.
Breaking down the numbers
Here are some key monetization metrics:
- Total revenue: Over $4 billion lifetime, ~ $175 million monthly
- Daily revenue: Approximately $6 million per day
- Top country: China – $1.4 billion (34.6% of revenue)
To put this in perspective, that means Genshin earns more per day than many indie games make in their entire lifetime. For a free game, this level of financial success is astronomical.
Main monetization methods
Genshin Impact drives spending through two key systems:
Wishing system
The wishing system lets players randomly unlock new characters, weapons, materials, and more using the premium "Primogems" currency. It costs about $25 for a 10-pull.
| Rarity | Odds per 10-pull |
|---|---|
| 5-star item (highest rarity) | 0.6% |
| 4-star item | 5.1% |
As you can see, the rates for top rarity 5-star drops are extremely low. This encourages spending more until you eventually get lucky.
Battle Pass
The $10 monthly Battle Pass awards weapons, resources, currencies as you complete daily/weekly objectives. This allows grinding less.
Creating incentives to spend
Let‘s analyze some ways Genshin Impact encourages players to spend:
- FOMO tactics: Limited-time characters/weapons create fear of missing out
- Sunken cost: The more you play and invest, the more tempting spending becomes
- Constant new content updates maintain engagement long-term
As an avid gamer myself, I totally understand how the gacha system leverages psychology and addictive mechanics to drive revenue through optional spending. It can become especially problematic for those prone to addictive tendencies or gambling disorders. At the same time, the depth of content and polish provided justifies continued development and monetization to some extent. For a completely free game, there is ultimately tons of entertainment even without spending.
How revenue is reinvested into development
Mihoyo invests profits into huge, ongoing content updates:
- Regular events, quests, regions added
- Currently 36 characters – new additions every ~6 weeks
- Massive open world, soundtrack, visuals, and lore
This steady stream of substantial updates continually gives incentivizes both existing and new players to keep playing (and potentially spending). No signs of slowing down either, with ambitious long-term plans still in the works!
In closing, Genshin Impact leverages a variety of monetization methods centered around gacha wishing mechanics to generate an absolutely staggering $4+ billion in just 2 years. This allows incredibly rapid, large-scale updates that provide depth and longevity unusual for free games. The sheer quality and quantity of new content drives ongoing revenue, creating a positive feedback loop.
While controversial at times, the monetization fuels Mihoyo‘s ambition and aligned with player willingness to spend. As a top grossing game, Genshin clearly delivers tremendous value from a financial perspective. For us fans and players, we happily reap the rewards of seeing our favorite characters and world expanded regularly at an unrivaled scale.
