Who could have predicted that yet another boycott campaign launched by highly active Twitter users would ultimately have no effect?
Despite a shaky start, miHoYo’s recent release of Zenless Zone Zero only managed $24.6 million in its first week, despite achieving 50 million downloads. However, Zenless Zone Zero topped the revenue charts for July 2024 among all gacha games, grossing over $68.8 million in China alone during its first month and an additional $31 million globally, according to gacharevenue.
The game was released on July 4, 2024, on PC, Sony’s PlayStation 5, and mobile devices such as Android and iOS.
Purple = Global
As shown in the image above, the CN version of Zenless Zone Zero performed exceptionally well, and the global version grossed over $31 million, bringing the total revenue to $99.8 million.
Among its competitors, only Love and Deepspace, a male-centric romance game catering to both homosexual men and women looking to self-insert and date handsome hunks, also saw a significant increase in revenue.
Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle and Monster Strike experienced revenue growth, while other games like Honkai Star Rail, Genshin Impact, and Wuthering Waves saw declines compared to June.
Nonetheless, three miHoYo-developed games ranked within the top five in China and dominated the top three spots globally.
Another interesting tidbit is the sharp rise in revenue for Snowbreak: Containment Zone, which recently gained attention after English voice actors refused to reprise their roles due to the developers’ shift towards appealing to heterosexual players with alluring fanservice content and more attractive female character designs.
Its global revenue has doubled compared to last month, generating $1.4 million in July and ranking as the 14th highest-grossing game overall.
In China, the game’s popularity has skyrocketed, ranking 9th overall with $8.25 million in revenue throughout July 2024, an increase of $5.5 million compared to the previous month.
Once again proving the theory that sex sells, the developers radically transformed the game and are now reaping the rewards. However, the most interesting aspect is the immense popularity of miHoYo’s games both in China and abroad.
Despite facing a monumental social media boycott campaign over “colorism” and cultural appropriation, the developers behind Honkai: Star Rail, Genshin Impact, and the recently released Zenless Zone Zero continue to thrive.
The boycott, supported by a Change.org petition with over 104,000 signatures, accuses HoYoverse of cultural appropriation and whitewashing characters in the upcoming Natlan region, which is reportedly based on African cultural themes.
The petition states, “We call on MiHoYo to stop cultural appropriation and whitewashing in their games and to commit to respectful and accurate representation of all cultures.”
Needless to say, the campaign has faced significant mockery and criticism, largely due to the number of “anti-racists” who are openly subverting the creators’ intentions by race-swapping miHoYo’s characters to appear Black based on their personal beliefs about what the characters should look like.
The petition has garnered over 100,000 signatures, a remarkable achievement in itself. However, it’s notable that these “boycotters” paradoxically continue to play miHoYo games while encouraging others to join their “boycott” by refusing to spend real money on new characters.
They are promoting a “free-to-play” stance during this campaign, despite their ongoing engagement with the games which serves as free marketing for the Chinese.
These individuals previously attempted to boycott Genshin Impact when it introduced the region of Sumeru, which was perceived as inspired by Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern cultures.
They argued that the characters did not adequately “represent” these regions based on their skin color, claiming that they should have been darker according to their standards which obviously included racist “fixed it” artwork that race swaps various characters from Sumeru as Black.
This, along with previous campaigns to cancel the character “Eula” due to her ancestral connections to slavery, ultimately undermines any credibility their concerns might have had.
Their latest campaign urges miHoYo to consult with indigenous cultural experts, revise existing characters for more “accurate representation,” and commit to creating more diverse characters in the future.
This approach is reminiscent of demands often made by organizations like Sweet Baby Inc., which has been accused of artificially race-swapping characters in games and threatening developers with social outrage if they don’t pay for their consultancy services which allegedly happened with the Chinese game Black Myth: Wukong.
Their entire campaign centers on the idea of simply altering White or Asian characters to appear Black, which they use as a superficial solution for diversity and representation.
These individuals have consistently sought to boycott Genshin Impact over the years, accusing it of “colorism” and cultural appropriation. Their proposed remedy is to change the appearance of characters to Black.
For instance, the character Nahida, introduced with the Sumeru region in the game, is believed to be inspired by the Hindu goddess Saraswati, who is traditionally depicted with “pure white skin.”
However, according to some Western critics, miHoYo is accused of cultural appropriation because Sumeru is supposedly based on a blend of Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian cultures.
Consequently, they argued that Nahida should be darker to better represent these regions.
These boycotters are retarded. They continue to play the game while publicly condemning it as racist and offensive. They don’t object when White characters or deities are portrayed as Black, viewing it as a fictional creative choice. However, when the situation is reversed, they see it as a serious problem.
A problem that’s further amplified by anti-White / anti-Asian video game journalists given their negligence to cover the monumentally controversial topic of Assassin’s Creed Shadows and its bid to rewrite Japan’s history with a fictionalized samurai setting of a supposed historical figure despite zero historical evidence supporting such claims.
This phenomenon is often referred to as “Black fragility,” as many of these boycotters are American, of mixed backgrounds, or liberal White Americans who focus on “marginalized” races.
A significant number of non-binary and queer English voice actors for Genshin Impact have voiced their anti-White sentiments in support of the cause, one of whom absolutely loved Hades 2’s interpretation of Greek gods as fat Black queers.
Despite their efforts, these acts of virtue have had minimal effect on miHoYo/Hoyoverse’s dominance in the revenue charts. Both Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail have experienced drops in monthly revenue.
Honkai: Star Rail saw a notable $55.2 million decline from June to July across China and global figures, while Genshin Impact faced a $30.2 million decrease in monthly revenue.
This drop is primarily due to the lack of new content for both games, with players moving their focus to Zenless Zone Zero, which launched censored at the start of July.
Overall, HoYoverse grossed $163 million in June from Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. In July, with the addition of Zenless Zone Zero, HoYoverse’s total revenue rose to $177.4 million. Ironically, this amount is still less than what Genshin Impact alone earned in its first month of release.
Overall, at $177.4 million generated this represents an 8.8% increase in revenue month-over-month, a figure likely to remain steady or even grow in the coming months with the addition of the Natlan region to Genshin Impact.
This demonstrates that those boycotting the game are individuals who don’t actually play the games themselves or, if they do, their social media activism doesn’t translate into significant financial impact given that Genshin Impact is a game dominated by Asian regions in terms of its player base.
It’s almost as if their boycott campaign has inadvertently served as a tremendous advertisement for miHoYo because the CCP appreciates your generosity.
