Genshin Impact has faced a wave of negative reviews and a significant drop in followers on its official Douyin (TikTok) account, losing almost 1 million followers.
The backlash ensued following the recent version 4.4 Livestream, where it was revealed that players would receive only three dollops of Intertwined Fate material during the Lantern Rite event.
Before the 4.4 Livestream, Genshin’s Douyin account boasted 9.35 million followers, but it has now dwindled to 8.41 million.
The Lantern Rite is an annual in-game event in Genshin Impact that coincides with Chinese New Year, offering rewards such as a free four-star character picker and Primogems—the currency for acquiring Intertwined Fate material in the gacha system.
While the rewards for the 2024 Lantern Rite are comparable to previous years, the dissatisfaction among Chinese Genshin Impact fans seems to stem from perceived lackluster rewards combined with the announcement that a free character skin selector is exclusive to purchasing a new PS5.
In contrast, HoYoverse’s other mainline game, Honkai: Star Rail, rewarded players with a free five-star character simply for logging into the game.
The discontent extends to Genshin Impact’s official BiliBili page, which is experiencing both a decline in followers and an influx of one-star reviews. Notably, popular collaborators like KFC, Pizza Hut, and Heytea are also facing repercussions as Genshin fans unfollow their official social media channels.
You cannot 100% sure it's a bot, but it's quite obvious
For example, these account only follow genshin and it's at level 0, which means it has never interact with others, a typical bot characteristics.
You can gain experience to level up yourself by daily login, liking other… pic.twitter.com/XNfXGXCIiZ
— 🍁(Waiting for The Captain) (@hxg_diluc) January 22, 2024
There are indications that HoYoverse may be aware of the follower loss, with observations from Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail leaker hxg_diluc suggesting the emergence of suspicious bot-like accounts following Genshin’s BiliBili account after the decline in followers.
These accounts exhibit characteristics typical of bots, such as solely following Genshin and remaining at level 0, indicating no interaction with others.
The current situation mirrors past instances of criticism from Genshin Impact fans, echoing discontent that arose after the underwhelming reveal of the game’s first-anniversary rewards. Eurogamer has reached out to HoYoverse for comment.
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