Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact is a free-to-play action role-playing game from miHoYo, which both developed and published it, with distribution outside China handled by its international subsidiary Cognosphere, also known as HoYoverse. It launched on September 28, 2020 for Android, iOS, Windows and PlayStation 4. A dedicated PlayStation 5 version followed on April 28, 2021, and an Xbox Series X and Series S release arrived on November 20, 2024. Support for the PlayStation 4 version ended in April 2026.

The game is set in Teyvat, a fantasy world made up of seven nations, each linked to an element and governed by a god known as an Archon. Players follow the Traveler, an interstellar adventurer who becomes separated from their twin after the two arrive in Teyvat. Accompanied by a guide named Paimon, the Traveler moves from nation to nation searching for the missing sibling, getting drawn into local affairs and uncovering the secrets of the land along the way.

Exploration takes place across an open world where players can run, climb, swim and glide, with teleport points for fast travel. Players control a party of four characters and can swap between them during combat. Each character wields one of seven elements, Anemo, Geo, Pyro, Hydro, Cryo, Electro and Dendro, and combining elements triggers reactions, such as Hydro followed by Cryo freezing an enemy in place. Characters grow stronger through experience, weapons and artifacts, while Domains, bosses and other challenges hand out upgrade materials.

Beyond the main adventure, a co-op mode lets up to four players team up across platforms once they reach Adventure Rank 16. Most characters and weapons are obtained through a gacha system called Wishes that uses a currency called Primogems. The game is updated on a regular schedule, and later updates added the Genius Invokation TCG card game in December 2022 and the Miliastra Wonderland sandbox creation mode in October 2025.

Development began in January 2017, and the game was first shown publicly in 2019, with a development and marketing budget reported at around US$100 million. Its score was composed by a HOYO-MiX team led by Yu-Peng Chen. Critics generally reviewed it positively, praising the combat and open world while criticizing the endgame and monetization. The game performed very well commercially, reaching US$6.3 billion in total revenue by its fourth anniversary in 2024, and it won Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards 2021.