Highlights

  • Honkai: Star Rail made $87.3 million in May, outperforming Genshin Impact and securing the top spot in revenue charts.
  • Both games have updates every six weeks to keep content fresh, with Honkai: Star Rail introducing new characters like singer Robin.
  • Genshin Impact's April sales were high due to the release of Arlecchino, a highly anticipated character, impacting Honkai: Star Rail's revenue as well.

An interesting chart has revealed that Honkai: Star Rail vastly outperformed Genshin Impact in May, at least when it comes to revenue. The two HoYoverse titles feature a gacha mechanic requiring players to pull on various banners to get their desired characters and weapons.

Both games have a tight update schedule which allows HoYoverse to keep the content fresh by introducing tons of new content approximately every six weeks. The ongoing Honkai: Star Rail Version 2.2 has introduced two new characters, the famous Halovian singer Robin and the powerful cyborg cowboy Boothill.

Honkai Star Rail Black Swan
Related
Honkai: Star Rail 2.2 Chart Shows Most Popular Pure Fiction Characters

A Honkai: Star Rail chart ranks playable characters by their usage rate in the Pure Fiction domain for the ongoing Version 2.2.

Since their official releases, both Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact have dominated the mobile gaming industry, often taking the top two spots on revenue charts. A Reddit user named babu0poke shared an interesting chart revealing May sales numbers for various mobile games, including Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact. The data was taken from a credible business website called Sensor Tower. According to the new chart, Honkai: Star Rail's May revenue was around $87.3 million, which is a 25% drop from the previous month's $119 million. Despite this decline, Honkai: Star Rail still managed to take the top spot on the revenue chart, considering that Genshin Impact's May revenue was around $53.3 million.

Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact Lead Mobile Gaming Revenue Despite Drops

It should be noted that Genshin Impact's April sales were approximately $120 million, indicating a drop of over 55%. One of the main reasons why Genshin Impact reported considerably lower sales numbers compared to the previous month is probably because Arlecchino was released on April 24. Even though the majority of her banner duration was in May, most players pulled for the Fatui Harbinger in the first week she was released.

Arlecchino has been one of the most anticipated characters in Genshin Impact, as she was introduced as the main villain of the Fontaine region. Many replies in the comment section claim that her release was also responsible for Honkai: Star Rail's revenue decrease since the two games share a very similar player base. Honkai: Star Rail's banner schedule allowed both banner phases for Version 2.2 to arrive within the same month, which usually boosts its revenue numbers.

Genshin Impact will go through a similar process in the upcoming Version 4.7, which is scheduled to arrive on June 5. The recently held Special Program for Genshin Impact 4.7 event confirmed that the upcoming update will introduce three new playable characters - Clorinde, Sethos, and Sigewinne - all of whom will arrive this month.