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miHoYo's ACG IP Globalization and AI Transformation Monetization

1) In-game purchases and gacha: Revenue from player top-ups in titles such as Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Zen

MODEL

Key Fields

FIELD STAMPS

IndustryContent / Creator Economy

RegionMulti-region

ScaleGiant

ChannelOnline

📌 Background

miHoYo scaled up rapidly following the global launch of Genshin Impact in September 2020: according to mobile game market research firm Sensor Tower, the title surpassed 1 billion USD in mobile revenue within 171 days of release, with cumulative gross revenue across Google Play and the App Store exceeding 3 billion USD by 2022. However, as China's domestic ACG mobile gaming market revenue dropped 3.64% year-over-year to 28.281 billion RMB in 2025, the company announced plans to invest up to 100 billion RMB over three years into AI research and development to hedge against the weakening performance of its core titles.

👤 Target Customers

Global ACG and casual entertainment players, invested ecosystem enterprises

💰 Revenue Streams

1) In-game purchases and gacha: Revenue from player top-ups in titles such as Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Zenless Zone Zero; 2) Merchandise and licensing: Royalties collected via revenue-sharing agreements on licensed merchandise and cross-over collaborations; 3) Investment returns: Returns realized through exits or dividends from equity investments in upstream and downstream gaming and technology companies; 4) AI capability export: Providing industrialized R&D pipeline capabilities to external teams (opportunity item, revenue scale unvalidated).

🧮 Cost Structure

AAA game development and continuous content update costs; Global multi-language publishing and localized marketing costs; AI technology research and development and investment funding.

🛡️ Moat

Top-tier industrialized R&D pipeline and content production capabilities; highly robust global cross-platform publishing network; deep ACG cultural heritage and IP appeal.

🔑 Keys to Success

Maintaining high-quality content supply-side production capacity
Deep integration and implementation of AI technology within industrialized pipelines
Strategic synergy between the investment portfolio and core business

⚠️ Risks

Continuous delays or underperformance of new game releases
Failure to translate AI transformation into commercial results in a timely manner
Loss of core talent and remote management challenges

🏢 Cases

Genshin Impact
Honkai: Star Rail
Zenless Zone Zero

📊 SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Possesses global top-tier products like Genshin Impact with exceptionally high revenue and net profit margins
Independent unlisted structure grants a high degree of strategic flexibility
Strong self-publishing and multi-platform simultaneous release capabilities

Weaknesses

Core products entering the latter half of their lifecycle, with growth stalling due to a lack of new hit titles
High difficulty in expanding ACG audiences beyond core demographics, presenting a category ceiling

Opportunities

Heavy investment in AI to empower game R&D, reduce costs, improve efficiency, and drive gameplay innovation
Investment in 3 IPOs validates the expansion potential of its ecosystem investment portfolio
Exploration of cross-category and non-ACG tracks opens up new growth curves

Threats

Intensifying competition in the global gaming market with competitors continuously catching up
Increasing overseas compliance and geopolitical risks add uncertainty to publishing

Sources