Gacha games are nothing new, having been around in some form for decades, but in recent years, there’s been an explosion of gacha-based RPGs reaching worldwide popularity in a way they’ve never done before. The reasons for this are numerous, but at least one of them is the incredible success of 2020’s Genshin Impact.
While it came years into the gacha craze, launching on September 28, 2020, Genshin Impact broke through to audiences that may never have touched a gacha game before, including those already published by its developer, HoYoverse. Its previous Honkai series games were successful throughout Asia, where mobile gacha games have a longer history, but Genshin Impact was a much bigger global hit. And while it might be easy to forget now, when Genshin Impact was first announced, it seemed like it would be anything but a success.
