Honkai Impact 3rd Revenue Implodes at CNY — From Top 8 (Beating iQiyi) to Below Top 40, Losing to Its Own Sister Game

Honkai Impact 3rd's big 2.0 overhaul just faceplanted spectacularly during the Chinese New Year revenue race — dropping from Top 8 (beating iQiyi) last year to somewhere below Top 40, losing to miHoYo's own Tears of Themis (未定事件簿). The apps between iQiyi and where Honkai 3rd sits now? Each one represents an entire order of magnitude in revenue difference.

The original post uses iOS revenue chart data from 9 PM on Feb 1st to drive the point home. Last CNY's Herrscher banner (Herrschers are Honkai 3rd's prestige character tier — the marquee marketing focus across story and meta for multiple patches) landed at #8 overall, beating iQiyi. By last summer's Seele Herrscher banner, it had already become the weakest Herrscher banner ever, peaking at #14 and failing to overtake QQ Music — though at least it was still neck-and-neck.

The December Fu Hua banner showed the rot clearly — dropping to 30+ on the overall charts. Back then, copium was strong: "It's just a discounted filler banner, wait for 2.0." Well, 2.0 arrived with CNY's fierce competition. After a multi-wave marketing blitz claiming 2.0 would be a "completely new game" with massive overhauls, the revenue couldn't even beat Tears of Themis — a much smaller miHoYo title — and fell below Top 40. And this wasn't some discount filler banner either; it was a full-price banner with aggressive cumulative spending promotions.

Compared to last CNY, this is an "ankle-chop" — a Chinese internet slang meaning a drop so severe it's like getting sliced at the ankles. The distance between last year's benchmark (iQiyi) and Honkai 3rd's current position now contains QQ Music, NetEase Cloud Music, Kugou, Youku, Bilibili, Kuaishou, and Baidu Netdisk — each one an order of magnitude apart. One player quipped: "Just being able to witness this trainwreck live makes it worth the price of admission."

The most devastating comment came from a reply saying: "Version 2.0 basically nuked 6-7 years of accumulated account value (爆金币, 'exploded into gold coins' — slang for legacy content becoming worthless). Only a fool would keep playing." This sparked heated debate, with someone asking "Is it really that dramatic?" — but veteran players came out of the woodwork to confirm: "Watched my college roommate go from diehard fan to quitting. He said future updates would drain even the sparse captain (player) base that's left, and he's bouncing once his monthly card expires."

Players also pointed out that Honkai 3rd's position in miHoYo's ecosystem is about to be taken over by Zenless Zone Zero: "Looks like Honkai 3rd is getting replaced by ZZZ in miHoYo's lineup this year. Once ZZZ makes its move, everything will be fine." (An ironic echo of a famous WWII quote.) Some tried to stay optimistic — "New story, new art direction, there's still room to improve" — but were immediately countered: "Keep releasing more male limited characters, there's still plenty of room to drop further." (A jab at the controversial shift toward more male character banners in a traditionally waifu-focused game.)

Perhaps the most unexpected humiliation: Honkai 3rd got outperformed by Path to Nowhere (无期迷途), a much smaller gacha title. The comment section was full of self-deprecating humor: "The enemy is invading, I surrender first." From Top 8 to losing to Path to Nowhere — Honkai 3rd speedran a decline that would normally take other games years. Whether 2.0 turns out to be a last stand or an accelerated nosedive, time will tell — but this first wave of CNY data is definitely not a good omen.