miHoYo / HoYoverse (米哈游)

miHoYo was founded in 2011 by three students from Jiao Tong University, under a motto displayed without irony: "Tech Otakus Save the World". Their first mobile games, the Honkai series, targeted a niche audience raised on Japanese anime.

Genshin Impact, released in 2020, tipped the industry: the first Chinese game to establish itself in Japan and the West on its own merits, it passed five billion dollars in mobile revenue in three years. The studio has since followed with Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero, and imposed a model — a console-quality open world, free, financed by gacha, updated every six weeks.