Honkai: Star Railis on course to smash its firstGenshin Impactrecord as its explosively growing pre-registrations appear destined to propel it to the title of the biggest launch in HoYoverse’s history. The Chinese studioopenedHonkai: Star Railpre-registrationsin mid-February, offering various gameplay incentives to players who express early interest in the game with a free signup.
Much like its name suggests,Honkai: Star Railis a direct sequel toHonkai Impact 3rd, though it does away with the hack-and-slash aspect of its predecessor in favor of turn-based battles. Its core gameplay loop will hence also be notably different from that ofGenshin Impact, especially given how it lacks the open-world exploration of HoYoverse’s previous hit. On the other hand, this design shift should make the game a better fit for playing on the go, which is something that theHonkai: Star RailGamesCom 2022 trailerand its last three beta tests already hinted at.
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As for the impact of this genre switch on the game’s mass appeal,Honkai: Star Railhas already surpassed ten million pre-registrations, averaging around a million signups per day since its developer started accepting them. The figure was confirmed by HoYoverse global development director, Fish Ling, during a recent New York City demo event. Just a couple of days prior to that happening, the Shanghai-based company celebrated 3.5 million global pre-registrations witha free four-starHonkai: Star Railcharacter.
The explosive momentum that almost tripled that figure in the meantime was largely driven by HoYoverse’s home country, which accounted for around 7.5 million of all registrations, Ling revealed. While similar trends were also observable with the company’s previous games,Honkai: Star Railhas already matched the last pre-registrations figure formally confirmed forGenshin Impact, which celebrated ten million signups on its release day.
For context, while the open-world RPG took 40 days to hit that milestone, whileHonkai: Star Raildid it in ten. And though some unofficial reportssuggestGenshin Impactpre-registration figures were much higher,Honkai: Star Railis currently on course to smash even the most outrageous of those estimates.
All of that is assuming the game’s signup period won’t be cut short relative toGenshin Impact. But as things stand right now, the opposite will be true, with a recently updated iOS App Store listing stating thatHonkai: Star Railis dropping April 26. This would mean its pre-registration period will clock in at 44 days, leaving it with plenty of time to surpassGenshin Impactas HoYoverse’s most successful launch ever.
Honkai: Star Railis currently in development for Android, iOS, and PC, with the game being expected to release in spring 2023, most likely on April 26.
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