Genshin Impact, a free-to-play action-adventure game, has risen to become the third top-grossing iOS app in China, ahead of Douyin, China’s TikTok, according to data from App Annie on October 5.
Developed by Shanghai-based miHoYo, which is famed for games such as Honkai Impact 3rd, Guns GirlZ, and Tears of Themis, Genshin Impact hit over 17 million downloads, just four days after its debut on September 28, according to the app analytics firm. The number, however, did not include data from PS4 and PC.
With over 110,000 viewers during its global launch on livestreaming platform Twitch, the game was even more popular than Epic Games’ Fornite, according to a report by the South China Morning Post. It features a fantasy-like open world where players can set their journey to reunite with long-lost siblings in a post-apocalyptic world. Genshin Impact is currently available on mobile, PC, and PlayStation 4.
Shortly after its debut last Monday, Genshin Impact was criticized as a knockoff of Breath of the Wild, an action-adventure game developed by Nintendo for Nintendo Switch and Wii U consoles.
While miHoYo responded in an interview with FreeMMOStation that Breath of the Wild was “one of the inspirations” for the firm to create Genshin Impact, it added that the game is different as it features “a fully original story and characters,” and that “the core gameplay revolves around assembling a party of multiple characters and engaging in a combat system based on interactions between different elements.”
