When did Genshin Impact come out? Learn Genshin’s history

Rabiya Rizwan

Rabiya Rizwan

Genshin Impact made history with its content in the Gacha genre since its release and continues to receive great reception and rewards.

It has been a few years since Genshin Impact came out in the year 2020 making history in the genre, and the game has become an open-world RPG sensation by now. HoYoverse changed the Gacha industry for the better and used elements in their games not used by anyone before.

When did Genshin Impact Release?

Venti in Monstadt - the first event character
Venti in Monstadt - the first event character

Genshin Impact had a successful launch on September 28, 2020, for multiple platforms including Windows, IOS/Android, and PlayStation 4. That wasn't enough for HoYoverse, so later the game also came out for PlayStation 5 on April 28, 2021, and Xbox Series X|S on November 20, 2024.

Genshin Impact: Content available at Launch

Lisa charging her elemental attack
Lisa charging her elemental attack

Genshin Impact kicked off with two main regions, namely Liyue and Monstadt, that players could explore during the first major version. There weren't many event-exclusive characters but you could get five standard characters who were added when the game was released.

  • Keqing
  • Mona
  • Jean
  • Diluc
  • Qiqi
Keqing
Keqing Genshin Impact
Mona
Mona Genshin Impact
Jean
Jean Genshin Impact
Diluc
Diluc Genshin Impact

Qiqi
Qiqi Genshin Impact

The first event banner featured Venti who is the archon of Monstadt, and Klee was introduced during the second phase of the event. Players could also complete the prologue quest of the game that introduces them to the main story. The whole battle sequence with Dwalin and bonding with various characters including Bennett, Amber, and Klee was interesting.

Liyue scenery with Xiangling.
Liyue scenery with Xiangling.

Once you solve the crisis in Monstadt, you could visit Liyue and The first two acts of the Liyue chapter became accessible. You are greeted by the death of Morax and now have to get to the bottom of it, the chapters released later concluded it with an epic showdown with Childe.

Currently, there are five different nations that players can visit. These nations are added to every major update that occurs once every year. Event banners that featured characters from these multiple regions were also introduced.

  • Inazuma - Version 2.0
  • Sumeru - Version 3.0
  • Fontaine - Version 4.0
  • Natlan - Version 5.0

Who made Genshin Impact?

Noelle exploring Monstadt
Noelle exploring Monstadt

Mihoyo later renamed to HoYoverse developed Genshin Impact, but it wasn't their first Gacha game, as the game's combat was greatly inspired by one of their previous games Honkai Impact 3rd. While Honkai Impact was a linear game and focused on completing various stages, players were still required to make various builds for their characters to perform well.

Even before Honkai Impact, Mihoyo made many other games, and the company existed since 2011.

  • FlyMe2theMoon (2011)
  • Zombiegal Kawaii (2012)
  • Guns Girls Z (2014)
  • Honkai Impact 3rd (2016)
  • Tears of Themis (2020)
  • Genshin Impact (2020)

Genshin Impact is one of the largest and most ambitious project by HoYoverse. The game ended up inspiring many other games including Tower of Fantasy and Wuthering Waves.

The game remains MiHoYo's most successful title despite the release of Honkai Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero in the years that followed.

Genshin Impact: Reception and Rewards at launch

Liben in Genshin Impact the notorious salesman
Liben in Genshin Impact the notorious salesman

Before Genshin Impact's release, it captured the attention of all sorts of players, including the troublesome ones who protested against the game due to it being similar to The Legend of Zelda open-world games. Yet the game amassed more than 10 Million pre-registrations for the game.

When the game launched, the critics praised it for various positive qualities the Genshin Impact had. It was praised for its excellent open-world design and the puzzles that players had to solve. It was also acclaimed for its representation of various cultures in different nations of Teyvat. The rest is history.

It was praised as a high-quality mobile game compared to many other action and adventure games made by modern game developers. The combat system had a great potential to remain interesting as HoYoverse introduced various characters with multiple kits.

Rewards

In the year it launched, Genshin Impact won several rewards in the mobile phone games categories.

  • Game of the Year - TapTap Game Awards
  • Best Game - Google Play Awards
  • iPhone Game of the Year - Appstore Best of 2020