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With Honkai: Star Rail’s release fast approaching, many players eagerly await the launch of the new HoYoverse game. The massive popularity and hype of the Honkai Impact and Genshin Impact franchises have already brought a large number of players to the new game. However, Genshin Impact’s release also saw a high volume of pre-registration, a huge initial launch, and amazing first-year support. The question remains: Can Honkai: Star Rail or Genshin Impact outperform one of the most popular Gacha games ever made?
Honkai: Star Rail is a Gacha game taking place after the events of Honkai Impact 3rd. In it, players will control a party of 4 characters that can be earned through a Gacha system, using them to take part in the sci-fi story and strategic, turn-based combat. Genshin Impact is similarly a Gacha game; however, this game has more of a fantasy setting, and combat is action-oriented rather than turn-based. Both games require players to gather various resources, either by paying or through gameplay, for chances to “roll” and unlock more weapons and characters. While this may seem like a poor system, it helps provide an interesting gameplay loop that players often get excited about.
How Successful Will Honkai: Star Rail’s Release Be?
Before its release, Honkai: Star Rail has already amassed over 10 million per-registrations. This amount is staggering, especially for a game that has not been released yet. By reaching this goal, HoYoverse gives players many rewards on release, including 20 Star Rail Passes (to roll for new characters), the 4-star character Serval, and many other resources. Despite these huge numbers, it’s hard to say whether that will actually translate to launch-day players and how many will be keen to stick around for the weeks beyond. However, it’s fair to say they’re teeing Star Rail up for a strong start and a big growth potential. It’s notable that in addition to serving as a gateway for current Genshin players, Star Rail is likely to draw interest from those who feel they’ve fallen too far behind Genshin to get involved. After all, attempting to finish two years of content in HoYoverse’ s Genshin Impact may be difficult for some new players. Honkai: Star Rail may provide a perfect starting point for the Gacha genre to get in on the ground floor.
Can Genshin Compete With These Numbers?
Comparing the now over two-year-old Genshin Impact to Honkai: Star Rail’s release may seem difficult; however, the two HoYoverse games are closer than most players anticipate. Even though Honkai: Star Rail benefits from the hype of Genshin Impact’s success, the latter game reached a similar pre-registration goal of over 10 million players. After Genshin’s initial release, the game would go on a year of success, earning over 3 billion dollars in the first year of its release. Although it’s currently hard to tell if Honkai: Star Rail’s release will net the same revenue, with similar Gacha styles and initial per-registration counts, the games may have decently close results. Despite this, however, Honkai: Star Rail has a few appealing factors that make the game more accessible to general audiences.
Which Game Is More Popular?
However, the question remains: Will Honkai: Star Rail’s release surpass Genshin Impact? I think it’s certainly possible. There’s a big chance the game will gain a boost from Genshin Impact’s popularity, as well as carry over more fans from Honkai Impact 3rd. This combination of a huge new game and a familiar IP might just be what Honkai: Star Rail needs to edge out Genshin’s impact overall. The launch of Honkai: Star Rail will be a huge event for HoYoverse fans, especially those unable to participate in the games beta. As always with predictions, though, the results may prove different. Still, I’m confident Honkai: Star Rail will thrive after introducing players to the Honkai universe. For those reasons, I’m hedging my bets that Honkai: Star Rail will beat out Genshin Impact’s launch and prove a huge boon for HoYoverse.
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Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact Differences
In the end, of course, the two games aren’t really in competition with each other. A large number of Genshin Impact fans will be at Honkai: Star Rail’s release. Some players have even started planning their daily and farming schedules around both games. While it is interesting to note how one game will perform versus the other, HoYoverse has definitely designed the games to be played in unity rather than competing for attention. This is primarily due to the short amount of time either game takes to finish daily quests, and other important activities, taking less than an hour total for both games.
Honkai: Star Rail releases on April 25/26, depending on time-zone differences. The game is available for Windows, iOS, Android, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. Check out Honkai: Star Rail on their official YouTube or Twitter pages.
