The Sudden Rise Of 3D Anime Open-World Gacha Games

Source: Wikipedia

The release of the game “Genshin Impact” from the game company MiHoyo now called Hoyoverse has opened the gaming market to “Open-world Anime Gacha” games. Its success led to the creation of multiple games that are similar in design from many other publishers or even the same company themselves. These examples include Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero from the same company, and successful titles such as Wuthering Waves from KURO GAMES and Arknights: Endfield from Hypergryph. There are many other games that use 3d open-world and anime aspects, but what caused other game publishers to release games that may be similar to Genshin Impact?

Source: Wuthering Waves

To see why other publishers follow Genshin, let us explore what caused the game to be successful. According to Twitter, Genshin Impact has been the most talked about game in the year 2021 and has been a successful hit, earning around 2 billion dollars on its first year according to Sensor Tower and gathering more than 10 million global pre-registrations. The game has featured 3d visuals and an open-world combat experience that players can access using their mobile phones and other gadgets. Other than that, Genshin has also brought the “Breath of the Wild by Nintendo” experience to phones.

Mobile phones have been the most used device with 5.19 billion people using it as of the year 2020. A study by Nawaz et.al. titled as Examining smartphone usage behaviour in the COVID-19 era: Implications for post-pandemic usage and dependence patterns stated that people aged 18–40 are the most active in using their phones. This age range is part of Gen Z and is part of the average age range of Genshin Impact players which is 18–20.

Source: Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact along with other games that feel similar to it became an avenue of promoting and introducing Chinese culture towards global audiences. A very popular example is a character named Yun Jin who also comes from the same game. She has showcased an art called Peking Opera. Combining different ranges of vocals and breath techniques, this art is surely treasured in China, yet may have a different reception internationally. There were people who either love, tease, or study the art of Peking Opera, but the goal of showing the beauty of China is fulfilled. This statement remains true to other games following the same direction.

Though there is admiration in the character design, story, gameplay, and even fan service towards these games, it is also known that they have a “Gacha” system which is quite similar to gambling and another way of monetizing the games mentioned above. It is quite effective due to characters being tempting or to avoid missing out on making the game feel easier in combat scenarios. Tier lists and character worth are also what’s measured in these games, but that is another topic to be talked about.

TLDR: Games follow Genshin Impact because of its visuals and graphics, capability to run on mobile phones, the game’s popularity during The Pandemic, promotion of Chinese Culture, and the Gacha system of monetization.

P.S. I did not consider taking in-game photos prior to writing this article. All photos placed will be credited and linked.