Genshin Impact, Star Rail lead top-grossing mobile games of 2023
Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail were among the top-grossing mobile games of 2023, making MiHoyo one of the top-earning publishers of the year. Revenue from both games still wasn’t enough to unseat Tencent and NetEase, however.
Data from MobileGamer.biz shows that Genshin Impact brought in $943.8 million globally in 2023 on iOS and Android, which is down by nearly $6 million from its reported 2022 revenue. Honkai Star Rail on mobile brought in $659.1 million, and MobileGamer speculates that Star Rail’s success – combined with marketing that aimed it at the Genshin crowd – might have contributed to Genshin Impact’s slightly lower earnings.
Honkai Star Rail launched at the end of April 2023, so its debut year consisted of roughly eight months. For comparison, data firm SensorTower reported that Genshin Impact brought in $874 million on mobile in its first eight months.
HoYoverse’s combined mobile revenue clocked in at $1.71 billion, which placed it as the fourth top-earning publisher of 2023. Tencent took the top spot, with $4.88 billion in revenue, thanks in part to successes from PUBG Mobile and Honor of Kings. NetEase landed in the second spot, with $1.84 billion, followed by Irish publisher and Homescapes maker Playrix at $1.83 billion.
Perennial favorite Candy Crush Saga brought in $956 million, slightly more than Genshin Impact, but publisher King earned $1.37 million overall, placing it just under HoYoverse.
As for HoYo’s future, the team is gearing up to release Honkai Star Rail 2.0 in the near future and the action-RPG Zenless Zone Zero sometime later in 2024.
