The newest game from Genshin Impact developer Hoyoverse is already topping charts on mobile devices before the game's scheduled launch later this week. HoYoverse first revealed Honkai: Star Rail late last year as a spinoff to one of the Chinese developer's two flagship games, Honkai Impact 3rd, with multiple beta tests held in the year-and-a-half since. The spinoff notably sheds the developer's standard action-oriented gameplay for more traditional turn-based combat while borrowing some fan-favorite characters from past games. Now, the excitement from fans is showing on the App Store.The launch of Honkai: Star Rail is expected to see similar success to its predecessor in Genshin Impact, already boasting millions of pre-registrations. Following Genshin Impact's release in late 2020, the game caught fire as streamers and other content creators caught onto the game alongside heavy marketing from HoYoverse. The RPG regularly boasts millions in sales with each of its new character releases, often earning tens of millions from the Chinese iOS market alone. Now, fans are clearly ready for the next adventure from HoYoverse with Honkai: Star Rail topping charts. An announcement posted by HoYoverse to the official Honkai: Star Rail Twitter account has revealed the massive pre-release hype from fans of the developer. HoYoverse has revealed that Honkai: Star Rail is already topping the "Free Apps" category on Apple's App Store across "multiple regions," with players still unable to play the game. Honkai: Star Rail is currently set to open up to players at 10:00 AM UTC+8 on April 26th, but players can already download the game and complete pre-installation early.
Honkai: Star Rail's highly-anticipated launch has already boasted massive levels of excitement from fans throughout the game's pre-registration campaigns. Fans of HoYoverse eager to dive into Star Rail would quickly smash through the game's pre-registration milestones, earning the full suite of rewards from HoYoverse. Star Rail would even surpass the record set by Genshin Impact, achieving over 10 million pre-registrations to match Genshin's total within just ten days. Genshin Impact notably took significantly longer to break the 10 million mark, achieving eight digit totals after forty days.
The release of Honkai: Star Rail comes as fans of HoYoverse have plenty on the horizon to look forward to in 2023. Genshin Impact is heavily believed to be gearing up for the launch of its fifth major region later this year, the water-themed Fontaine. HoYoverse also announced Zenless Zone Zero last year as another new RPG title from the developer, though the game's release window remains unknown. Honkai: Star Rail seems to have captured the same magic with fans as Genshin Impact and will look to continue a strong trend for HoYoverse.
Honkai: Star Rail will release on April 26th for PC and mobile devices. PS4 and PS5 versions are in development.