Zenless Zone Zero launches with 50 million worldwide downloads

MiHoYo's newest action-RPG Zenless Zone Zero has garnered 50 million downloads worldwide since its launch on July 4.

The game released on PlayStation 5, Windows, and mobile, and builds on the developer's ongoing success in recent years. Last year's Honkai Star Rail opened with 20 million players at launch, which itself built on the 17 million players for Genshin Impact.

"A city that once only existed in the hopes and dreams of the dev team has never been as buzzing with life as it is now," wrote MiHoYo.

MiHoYo's reputation as a hit maker stays intact

The developer's clout helped Zenless, as did going viral over the weekend and being free-to-play. The latter market can make almost any game explode into popularity at launch, particularly if there's been strong marketing behind it.

Like Genshin and Honkai, Zenless has received fairly solid reviews, with the studio's gacha mechanics being the main point of contention. MiHoYo noted that the game has "lots of improvements to be made," but was overall pleased with its reception.

In the years since their respective launches, Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail were nominated (and won) several awards, and the former has an anime in the works. Time will tell if Zenless Zone Zero can reach similar heights.