Genshin Impact Anniversary Rewards Backlash

Overview

Genshin Impact Anniversary Rewards Backlash refers to a controversy surrounding the number of free rewards given out to players by Genshin Impact developer Mihoyo during the one-year anniversary of the game. The number of rewards was deemed insufficient by many players, while Mihoyo attempted to silence negative comments, resulting in viral discussions on social media, memes and various actions taken by players to voice their disappointment.

Background

On September 20th, 2021, Chinese video game developer Mihoyo announced^[1][2] the anniversary community event for its gacha video game Genshin Impact. The event included several web events awarding the in-game currency Primogems and other in-game resources (tweet and community post shown below). One of the web events, "An Unforgettable Journey," awarded Primogems to all players, another required players to create anniversary cards for a 10 percent chance to win Primogems, while the rest were required to submit fan art or other fan labor.

The announcement was met with criticism from Genshin Impact players, with many pointing out that the promised rewards were too small and encouraging Mihoyo to announce additional rewards. For example, on September 20th, Twitter^[3] user @jacksondabae accused Mihoyo of being greedy with rewards. The tweet gained over 400 retweets and 8,500 likes in one week (shown below, left). On the same day, Twitter^[4] user @TakerutomyYTB posted a reaction image meme that gained over 6,900 retweets and 34,900 likes (shown below, center).

Online Reactions

In the following days, the upcoming anniversary rewards became a frequent subject of memes and discussions on Twitter, Reddit, Discord and Genshin Impact communities on other social media. For example, on September 23rd, Redditor Sotarnicus posted a Guy Who Have Lot A Water meme that gained over 6,900 upvotes in /r/Genshin_Impact^[5] in five days (shown below, left). On September 21st, 2021, Twitter^[6] user @wintermelyn posted a meme that gained over 530 retweets and 6,300 likes in one week (shown below, center).

On September 22nd, 2021, Forbes^[7] published an article titled "‘Genshin Impact’ Can Afford A Free Anniversary 5 Star Reward." On September 23rd, Redditor kenzakki posted a screenshot of the article to /r/Genshin_Impact,^[8] where it gained over 17,800 upvotes in five days (shown below, right).

On September 27th, 2021, the "An Unforgettable Journey" web event started in Genshin Impact. The event offered a 40-Primogem reward for completion and an additional 60-Primogem reward should the player share their event link with others and open links posted by other players. A "Passage of Clouds and Stars" in-game log-in event started on the same day, offering a 10 Wish (1,600 Primogem) reward. No additional rewards requested by players following the September 20th announcement were added.

Mihoyo's unwillingness to appease players resulted in a massive number of negative comments and memes about the company on social media (examples shown below), with both Mihoyo and Genshin Impact trending on Twitter on September 28th, 2021. The actions taken by the players in response to Mihoyo inaction included review bombing the game and spamming stickers of the character Qiqi lying down on social media.

Censorship

On September 27th, 2021, an anonymous 4chan^[9] /v/ user wrote that Genshin Impact communities on NGA, Tieba and other social media have been actively removing discussions of the award, falsely stating that the Genshin Impact subreddit was locked down (although instances of removed posts have been documented^[15]) (shown below). On September 27th, 2021, Twitter^[10] user @Achimel_Dl posted a screenshot of the post, with the tweet gaining over 1,100 retweets and 4,000 likes.

Review Bombing

Following the September 20th, 2021, announcement and in the following week, the game became a target of review bombing in the Google Play^[11][12] store. As of September 28th, 2021, the game had a 2 out of 5 rating on the app, dropping from a 4.6 rating several days prior.

Qiqi Sticker Spam

On September 27th, 2021, Redditor^[13] whgusalas05 posted a screenshot of South Korean players spamming an image of the character Qiqi lying down (:qiqi_fallen:) to express their disappointment with the anniversary rewards (shown below, left). On Genshin Impact's official Discord server, users also spammed the Qiqi sticker to protest against the developer (screenshot shown below, right).^[14]

Mihoyo's Reaction

On September 29th, following the backlash, Mihoyo began sending players daily in-game mail messages containing a reward of 400 primogems and other items. A total of four such reward packages are expected to arrive.

Search Interest

External References