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Honkai: Star Rail was reportedly downloaded 20 million times on its release day

MiHoYo's next mobile game is off to the races, having garnered even more downloads on its first day out than even Genshin Impact at launch.

TJ Denzer

April 28, 2023 10:55 AM

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Chinese developer MiHoYo, well-known for its previous success with Genshin Impact, is on track to knock another one out of the park with mobile sci-fi RPG Honkai: Star Rail. The game officially launched yesterday, and in the one day since, it was reportedly downloaded over 20 million times. If this number is fully accurate, it even outdid Genshin Impact when it first launched in September 2020.

Reports of Honkai: Star Rail’s Day One downloads were reported via Niko Partners video games analyst Daniel Ahmad, better known as ZhugeEX on social media. According to Ahmad, by the time one day had passed since Honkai: Star Rail’s release, the game had already surpassed over 20 million downloads. Looking back at data from Genshin Impact’s release in 2020, by Day Four following its release, the game had amassed 17 million downloads according to the data.ai Twitter. That means Honkai was able to outpace Genshin Impact in an even shorter amount of time.

It would appear that MiHoYo is on a role with its releases. We were impressed with Honkai: Star Rail during its appearance at the Apple Dev Showcase earlier this year, but it also seems to borrow many of the models that made Genshin Impact such a powerhouse mobile title before it. Honkai: Star Rail, like Genshin Impact, is a 3D turn-based RPG that is also free to download and play. Players gather a team of up to four characters with different elements, weapons, and unique styles of combat. You gather characters through a gacha system in the game with particularly desirable characters being rare drops.

It will be interesting to see if Honkai: Star Rail can keep this momentum following a stellar first day. Out on mobile devices and PC now, players can also look forward to a PlayStation console launch at a future date. We’ll be sure to share that date alongside other Honkai: Star Rail updates as they drop.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.