If u ever Feel Dumb, Just remember that There are still people/haters exist that believes genshin got a "Covid buff" to Get where it is now, Evn after sustaining this long and having 300M+ overall playerbase.

Many games, industries, and online communities got popularized due to people unable to go outside due to the illness and were forced to use digital spaces. Man we're already undergoing historical revisionism ICANT

It definitely did, but the fact that it sustained its popularity this long is commendable either way 🤷

It definitely gets COVID buff, the fact that genshin managed to retain the player base and grow on top of that is different matter entirely.

Dawg I just had surgery and I am too high on oxy to make head or tail of what you're saying

I think the game would have done well in China regardless of covid or not. But it definitely exploded in global due to covid. Getting people to play a chinese game in the US or Europe was extremely hard in 2020s.

But that is very likely what happened. Think about it. More people checking it out during covid also meant more people talking about it, which means even more people finding out about it and wanting to check it out too. I'm sure a lot of games got a covid buff, but Genshin benefited further from technically being free to play during a time when people weren't able to work. Toss in co-op options when everyone is quarantined, low system requirements, and being available on PS, PC, and mobile, and you had the perfect game for the time.

Sure it continues because it's a fun game, but you're only fooling yourself if you think covid had nothing to do with its explosive success.

If Genshin didnt go big, neither would future Hoyoverse games like Honkai Star Rail, Zenless Zone Zero or maybe even Wuthering Waves. That doesnt mean these games wouldnt be made, of course they will be (Hoyoverse would have still made their future projects, and Kuro Games would have still followed on their success of Punishing Gray Raven). They just would have an extremely different trajectory compared to where these games currently are.

Genshin definitely had a lockdown advantage. But so many other games also did. Fall Guys and Among Us exploded far earlier in popularity compared to Genshin, they are significantly smaller in space and do not have the Gacha theme either (which is a big turnoff for various players). But why did these games decline after the resuming of normal lifestyle? Because ultimately you will get bored playing this. The premise of these games are simple, so you learn quick, play quick, you get bored. Then you play these lesser. Genshin is not like that. If it released today I think it would still perform well. Of course they will have some modifications in terms of gameplay experience, but point is the rise of Genshin allowed rise of other "better" gacha games.

Is Genshin outdated? Maybe. That depends on what you consider as "outdated". Some people mistake simplicity as obsolete, especially when comparing Genshin's combat with other games. Genshin's combat is simpler, not outdated. There is a big difference between being easy and being old. I know which community you are referring to, and I have seen them talk bad about Genshin's combat system, since its a very simplistic model. Is Genshin outdated in terms of its game experience? Yes it is. There are various little improvements that could be done to these game experiences which other gachas have (Case and Point: Weapon Banner).

I agree Genshin wouldnt be what it is today if it wasnt released during lockdown, but so would other games. There could be a possibility that Gacha as a genre wouldnt be as commerical and mainstream as it is, and lot of people (including me) wouldnt have played games like Honkai Star Rail or Wuthering Waves at all. These are just hypotheticals and giving your "hot take" with a hypothetical implies your take has less to no implications in real life and is just a conversation topic. That's all. If you see this, just give your opinion or ignore.

The number of Genshin fanboys who think Genshin alone somehow isn't affected by the same market forces as ***literally every other tech company in the world*** is just astonishing.