Genshin Impact is currently withstanding a barrage of review bombs as a portion of the fan base appears to be turning against the hit game.
Genshin Impact is currently being review-bombed in China, on top of suffering a massive loss of social media followers. Its ongoing difficulties appear to be related to HoYoverse’s recent livestream announcing the Genshin Impact 4.4 Banners and some additional events.
The fandom of the hit gacha game has never shied away from voicing its displeasure about content that it perceives as inadequate in any way. The RPG’s commemorative events were among the most frequent targets of fan backlash, with the third-anniversary event drawing particular ire from Genshin Impact fans back in September 2023.
The latest wave of such player activism was seemingly prompted by HoYoverse’s 4.4 broadcast, which saw the developer announce players would receive a mere trio of Genshin Impact Intertwined Fates—a type of premium currency used for rolling event Banner characters and weapons—as part of the upcoming Latern Rite festival event. In response to those lackluster rewards, the fandom swarmed the game’s BiliBili download page with 1-star reviews, in addition to unfollowing its official Douyin page en masse.
Genshin Impact Lost 600,000 Douyin Followers Overnight
Followers on Douyin is still dropping continuously while the number of 1-star reviews on Bilibili is increasing
— Genshin Update (@GenshinUpdate) January 22, 2024
▶️Genshin Douyin: https://t.co/pmzcKe38CE
▶️Bilibili game download page: https://t.co/Z0PWGAJhkD https://t.co/XhaLtNVvJw pic.twitter.com/8aMuwtVafF
As first noted by Twitter user GenshinUpdate, the RPG’s Douyin account went from having 9.3 million followers on January 21 to 8.7 million the following day, after the 4.4 broadcast. While this isn’t the first time that the Genshin Impact fandom criticized the annual Lantern Rite freebies, which are given away as part of the Chinese New Year celebrations, it would appear that this year’s rewards are being perceived as particularly lackluster relative to the recent Honkai: Star Rail promos. As a reminder, HoYoverse’s newest game is currently giving away a 5-star character to anyone who logs in and completes its very first mission right now.
Even Brands Collaborating With Genshin Impact Are Feeling the Heat
People are now unfollowing company who collab with Genshin, including KFC, PizzaHut and Heytea. pic.twitter.com/ksoTDFPLGt
— 🍁(Waiting for The Captain) (@hxg_diluc) January 22, 2024
The ongoing backlash has also affected the Chinese social media accounts of Heytea, KFC, and PizzaHut, among other frequent Genshin Impact partners, which many disgruntled fans are now unfollowing, as originally noted by Twitter user hxg_diluc. Whether this wave of social media activism manages to elicit any changes from HoYoverse remains to be seen. But the chances of that happening are well within the realm of possibility. After all, the Chinese developer has a long track record of beefing up Genshin Impact event rewards due to fan backlash.
Given that state of affairs, it’s not surprising that the fandom is once again happy to try employing similar tactics in the hopes of improving the game’s selection of seasonal freebies. The 2024 Lantern Rite festival event, called Vibrant Harriers Aloft in Spring Breeze, kicks off on January 31.

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by DOMINIK BOŠNJAK 23 Jan 2024