miHoYo Spent Nearly $300M on US Ads Alone in One Year? Players Do the Math — Global Ad Budget Could Hit ¥10 Billion, Matching All Japanese Giants Combined

How much can a mobile game company spend on ads in a single year? According to data unearthed on NGA, the answer for miHoYo is: nearly $300 million — and that's just the US market alone.

On April 29, 2024, an NGA user posted a series of data charts sourced from a third-party advertising intelligence report titled "2024 US Market APAC Gaming Brand Digital Ad Insights." The data shows that miHoYo's combined US ad spend for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail from Q2 2023 to Q1 2024 came in at just under $300 million. The OP remarked: "Genshin and Star Rail together, a whole year, and the ad spend is still under $300M — honestly lower than I expected."

But the comment section was just getting warmed up with the math.

One highly upvoted reply broke it down: "This is US-only data, and the US is the most expensive advertising market in the world. It probably accounts for one-third to one-half of total overseas ad spend." By that logic, miHoYo's global overseas marketing costs could range from $600 million to $1 billion. Factor in domestic China spending, and the total could hit $1-1.5 billion — roughly ¥10 billion RMB. The commenter went further: this ratio actually aligns with normal industry standards (ad spend ≈ 1/3 of revenue). What was abnormal was how LOW miHoYo's marketing costs used to be. "A 5x increase means 2022 ad spend was only around ¥2 billion. No wonder their profit margins back then were insanely high."

The original data comes from a WeChat article summarizing a third-party advertising monitoring industry report focused on APAC gaming brands in the US market. Another user helpfully dropped the source link to confirm its legitimacy.

However, the data's interpretation quickly became a point of contention. A sharp-eyed commenter raised a crucial ambiguity: miHoYo spends the lion's share of its ad budget on YouTube, which is a US-based company but serves a global audience. "miHoYo frequently runs ads on Japanese VTuber channels to target Japanese viewers — so does that ad spend count as US or Japan?"

This sparked a mini tech debate in the replies. Some users pointed out that YouTube ads are targeted based on the viewer's location, not the creator's — "An American and a Japanese viewer watching the same VTuber see completely different ads. If you don't buy promotion for a specific region, YouTube won't push ads to people there." Others countered that even Japan-targeted ads are ultimately paid to YouTube (a US company), so the cost would likely be recorded under "US" in the report. If that's the case, the $300M figure might actually encompass YouTube campaigns targeting audiences worldwide.

The single most jaw-dropping comparison: miHoYo's US ad spend roughly equals the combined US spending of ALL major Japanese game publishers. One user called it "kind of insane," while another quipped: "miHoYo would plaster ads on toilet water if they could, so you'd see Genshin while taking a dump."

Some users tried to be the voice of reason: "That's just how internet product companies operate — Pinduoduo and Douyin do the same thing." But the prevailing reaction was sheer shock: "A mobile game company spending billions on ads? Still floored me." One user estimated that if the US market accounts for just one-third of global spend, then miHoYo's worldwide ad budget of around $1.5 billion is "a pretty reasonable estimate."

It's worth noting that some commenters questioned the data's accuracy and source, and since miHoYo is privately held (the three co-founders hold 41%, 20%, and 20% stakes respectively), there's no public financial filing to cross-reference these numbers. While the data comes from a credible third-party report, the actual figures remain unconfirmed without more authoritative disclosure.