Genshin Impact is a free-to-play game, but fans have a lot of options if they’re willing to spend money, too.
The main way to generate revenue is banners. They’re time-limited character pulls where one five-star sees their appearance rate increased.
Players will spend money to Wish for characters they really want to get in those banners. Those alternate between new character releases and reruns of older ones.
Related: Genshin Impact codes: All free Primogem and Mora codes (March 2023)
Last month, Hu Tao and Yelan returned in banners. Despite not being new characters, both of their banners smashed the record in revenue generated for HoYoverse among Chinese iOS users, according to Genshin Lab.
It grossed 45 million dollars in this market only, which means the numbers are much bigger when including Europe and North American players.
Yelan was the most popular banner, according to Genshin Lab. It counted roughly 30 percent more summons than Hu Tao.
Both five-star characters are considered as very strong in the game’s meta, and Yelan is one of the most popular Hydro characters.
Usually, the developer waits for roughly a year before making characters return into time-limited banners. Some players who really like characters will save up all their resources and spend more to gear up their main, as once they’ve unlocked them, they can still increase their skills up to six character duplicates, named Constellations.
The revenue generated by each banner also shows the popularity of Genshin Impact is still growing and reaching new heights every year. In 2022, the game grossed over $4 billion.
This proves that its formula bears fruit. In addition to introducing new characters every two months and returning ones in banners, updates frequently add more quests and areas to discover, with puzzles and a lot of other things to get Achievements.
The last update, Patch 3.5, introduced Dehya as a new character, as well as a new area in Sumeru, Archon quests, and more.
