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HoYoverse’s gacha star Honkai: Star Rail has surpassed $2 billion in gross player spending on mobile in just under two years since launch.
The title first released on April 26th, 2023 and arrived at its first $1 billion on January 14th, 2024. Now, over one year later – and one month before its second anniversary – the title hit the $2bn mark on March 23rd, 2025.
According to AppMagic estimates, combining gross player spending between the App Store and Google Play, Honkai: Star Rail ultimately took 23 months to achieve what another HoYoverse title, Genshin Impact, did in 13.
The two continue games to fluctuate in earnings, with Honkai: Star Rail generating more revenue in 2024 overall.
Interstellar earnings
After achieving a record-breaking 20 million downloads on launch day, Honkai: Star Rail’s most lucrative month on mobile followed shortly after in May 2023, with $209.1m in gross player spending.
A total of four gacha banners were available to spend on during that month, with two that featured five-star characters Seele and Jing Yuan and the others having offered rare stat-boosting items called Light Cones.
Jing Yuan’s addition on May 17th sparked the game’s highest single-day spending of 2023, hitting $14.9m on May 18th.
That figure wasn’t beaten until almost one full year later on March 27th, 2024 with the arrival of Version 2.1. The update introduced new maps, story events, Light Cones and characters, and helped the title accumulate a record $15.9m on mobile that same day.
March 2024 was also Honkai: Star Rail’s best month last year, having generated $129.8m on mobile. Meanwhile, Genshin Impact recorded its worst performance yet at the time at $59m. This added further evidence to speculation of cannibalisation between the two titles.
March 2024 also kickstarted a seven-month run of Honkai: Star Rail outperforming Genshin Impact on mobile, outearning HoYoverse’s flagship each month until October.
Overall, Honkai: Star Rail earned $870.9m in 2024 between Google Play and the App Store versus Genshin Impact’s $730.1m.
Now almost three months through 2025, Honkai: Star Rail has made a further $152.2m while Genshin’s back in the lead with $159.3m.
A place in the market
Both major HoYoverse RPGs have established key markets in China, Japan and the US. China is the highest-spending audience for both, having contributed 36% of Honkai: Star Rail’s mobile revenue and 37% of Genshin Impact’s.
Japan has established a slightly more important position for the newer game, accounting for 29% of Honkai: Star Rail’s player spending and 22% of Genshin Impact’s.
The US, meanwhile, has accounted for just 13% in Honkai: Star Rail versus 16% for Genshin Impact.
Rising Star
Honkai: Star Rail quickly became one of the most successful mobile games to release post-pandemic, having landed as the second most lucrative new title on the platform in 2023 behind Scopely’s Monopoly Go. It was also the ninth most lucrative mobile game overall that year.
And despite slowing down after year one, Honkai: Star Rail has continued to prove its place as a major contender in the industry, having landed as the 12th most lucrative mobile game overall in 2024, beating Genshin Impact, Pokémon Go, and more.
