Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact launched September 28, 2020, with StreamerHouse pulling 403 viewers as miHoYo's free-to-play anime gacha game rewrote industry economics. The game broke through to audiences who never touched gacha games before, earning "generally positive reviews" for excellent open-world design, cultural representation, and combat mechanics despite criticism for simplistic endgame and predatory monetization. Pre-launch derision labeled it a Breath of the Wild ripoff with sketchy gacha mechanics, but launch reception silenced many critics—by end of 2022, Genshin generated $3.8 billion, the highest first-year revenue for any video game ever. The anime aesthetic, Japanese voice actors, and free accessibility created a perfect storm. In September 2022, miHoYo partnered with Ufotable for an anime adaptation. The game redefined gacha from niche mobile genre to mainstream phenomenon, proving free-to-play anime games could dominate Western markets. StreamerHouse streaming in 2020 caught the cultural shift as Genshin normalized gacha mechanics for millions, for better or worse. The game continues thriving in 2025, spawning imitators and controversy about gambling mechanics in gaming. Genshin didn't just succeed—it changed the industry's economic model permanently.