You’re probably familiar with the name The miHoYo Group, the huge company behind HoYoverse, responsible for popular video games like Honkai: Star Rail, Honkai Impact 3rd and Genshin Impact. Over the past few years, this company has amassed a huge fortune due to the consistent success of their video games that are available for multiple platforms, have fun, yet accessible gameplay, and feature huge casts of characters with memorable designs. And if anyone has gained from this achievement (besides the gamers who play their games) it is Cai Haoyu, the company’s CEO who has just made the ranking of the richest people in all of China.
How much money does the CEO of miHoYo have to his name?
Chinese economic think tank Hurun Research Institute has just released its 2023 Edition of its annual “Hurun Hundred Wealth” list. Among 1241 entrepreneurs accumulating a total of 5 million yuan or more in assets (Which would be 683,396 US dollars) miHoYo’s CEO ranked #55, with a total of 67 billion yuan (Or 9 million US dollars) in assets. This means that his wealth grew by 46 billion yuan in the span of a single year, which is really impressive and a proof of how huge HoYoYo’s holdings are.
To explain this enormous wealth, we can attribute it to its successful video games. While Genshin Impact obviously continues to grow as one of the biggest phenomena in the entire industry since its initial release in 2020, special mention must also be made of Honkai: Star Rail. The new sci-fi RPG from miHoYo was just released in April 2023 and currently boasts over 25 million daily players. The most interesting part of all this is that both titles are completely free to play, but have such a solid base that their players don’t hesitate to spend real money on characters, skins, items, etc.
The reports of Cai Haoyu’s enormous wealth really came as no surprise, as almost the entire industry is aware of miHoYo’s enormous success. The Otakomu site was filled with comments praising the CEO, such as “If you do well with one game, your whole life can turn around”, “They are already the most successful company in the history of the video game industry”, “Genshin Impact revolutionized the common sense of smartphone games” and “They achieved so much and gained so many fans that they will be able to survive even if Gacha is regulated”, in reference to the possible regulations that Gacha systems in mobile games might receive in the near future.
And all of these comments are right on the money. There is no doubt that, thanks to Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, The miHoYo Group has become one of the biggest and most important pillars of the video game industry, especially within the mobile title format. And although it is surprising that its CEO Cai Haoyu is one of the richest men in the entire industry, if they continue like this, it is possible that their ranking in the Hurun Reserch Institute ranking will continue to grow in the coming years. What do you think about it? Do you think it deserves this enormous wealth?
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