Honkai: Star Rail Surpasses 20 Million Downloads Ahead of PS5, PS4 Launch

All aboard

by Sammy Barker Fri 28th Apr 2023

Honkai: Star Rail PS5 PS4 PlayStation HoYoverse Downloads 1

How big is Honkai: Star Rail? Unfathomably big – and it’s not even out on PS5 and PS4 yet. HoYoverse, the Chinese juggernaut also behind Genshin Impact, has confirmed that the free-to-play turnbased RPG has surpassed 20 million downloads just a day after its release on PC and smartphones. The number is double the amount of pre-registrations it had accrued prior to launch.

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Obviously this is a staggering success for the studio, which basically has a license to print money at this point. We still don’t know when the PlayStation versions will arrive, but the team says they’re in development and we wouldn’t expect them to take too long. Once the ports do eventually deploy, expect them to see similar success on Sony’s systems as well.

As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.

1
Shepherd_Tallon
Fri 28th Apr 2023

Amazing stuff. I had pre-registered, but I'll wait for the PS5 version. And then I'll lie to myself about having time to play this.

You have to give credit to Sony here - They got in to China and started building those relationships right at the start with China Hero.
I don't know that HoYoverse were a part of that, but there's clearly a solid partnership building there regardless.

2
LiamCroft
Fri 28th Apr 2023

I'm gonna have to give this game a go when it comes to PS5. A live service turn-based RPG sounds far too good to miss out on.

3
AgentGuapo
Fri 28th Apr 2023

Free to play. I’ll pass.

4
WallyWest
Fri 28th Apr 2023

Yeah quite excited to play this as i loved Genshin even if i stopped playing it a while back.

5
get2sammyb
Fri 28th Apr 2023

@AgentGuapo Despite being free-to-play, it's honestly on par with a lot of full-priced JRPG style games. Obviously there is the gacha aspect, though.

6
AndyKazama
Fri 28th Apr 2023

My crude maths tells me that 1/7 or 1/8 PlayStation 4 and 5 owners have registered interest. That's insane.

7
VanguardKaiser
Fri 28th Apr 2023

@get2sammyb I'm thoroughly enjoying it atm. It's stunning and my tablet runs it fine on high settings at 60fps. Hopefully it'll have cross-save when it launches on PS5.

8
get2sammyb
Fri 28th Apr 2023

@AndyKazama Well this was for the PC/mobile release to be clear.

9
z0d15g0d
Fri 28th Apr 2023

@get2sammyb You're right its definitely on par with full priced JRPG's and if you're lucky to have a good rng like I'm currently experiencing (first time ever), you'll have more 5 star characters than you know what to do with.

10
AndyKazama
Fri 28th Apr 2023

@get2sammyb egg on face 😂 still insane. (I need to learn to read😂)

11
throwmeaname
Fri 28th Apr 2023

@z0d15g0d I never played a gacha. Can you explain the main appeal/premise for the game? I can understand a singleplayer adventure game where you go from point A to B, where there's a clear beginning middle and end. But I never really understood how these gacha game works. Same with Genshin. How can people play this for so long? Doesn't the game get repetitive? Is there an endgame? Are you supposed to collect all the characters? I'm confused.

12
GKT
Fri 28th Apr 2023

One thing I'm really looking forward to is the music because in Genshin it's on a different level imo.

13
wiiware
Fri 28th Apr 2023

With that title I though the game just released on ps5

14
ThomasHL
Fri 28th Apr 2023

@throwmeaname Genshin has effectively a single player campaign that continually gets updated with new DLC / expansions. You're not expected to (and almost certainly won't) collect all the characters, but collecting lots of characters is a big draw. You can also grind particular mission types to get levels etc. If you think about a game like Skyrim, lots of people play it beyond the main campaign.

Its very similar in structure to a non-sandbox MMO, just without the other players.

15
Gilgamax305
Fri 28th Apr 2023

I'll definitely be jumping on this one, when it arrives on PS5. Be nice to have a live service turn based JRPG, for the days I don't fancy playing anything too hard-core. Looks good so far.

16
Bentleyma
Fri 28th Apr 2023

It continues to impress me how polished HoYoverse‘s games are. I just beat the first boss. Going to play for a bit longer to see if it’s something I want to invest my time in once it comes to PlayStation.

17
Constable_What
Fri 28th Apr 2023

@VanguardKaiser I know Genshin has cross progression; just make sure to make a Hoyoverse account and link it to your Playstation account BEFORE you start the game on PS4/5.

18
z0d15g0d
Fri 28th Apr 2023

@throwmeaname the gacha name is from the east Asian hand cranking toy vending machine. Sorta the equivalent of kinder surprise over here. Pay some money for a random toy and in this case character. though you get lots of free tickets in the game at the mo not sure if that will still be the case further down the line.

19
Jmerbaugh
Fri 28th Apr 2023

Im at Trailblazer 19 which is about 10 hrs in and my opinion is that this is a really good game. It has Gacha mechanics but I only put 15 dollars in to get the pass and the daily gift. I don’t have a problem giving a free game money if it’s really good.

20
rawzeku
Fri 28th Apr 2023

Been playing it none stop since release on PC. And loving it. But I do have a concern about the combat, cause I feel like its gonna become VERY stale very very fast cause in all fairness, its not very complicated. But with time surely it can and will change.

21
Drago201
Sat 29th Apr 2023

Very rarely play mobile but gave this a try and I like it but I'm gonna wait on the playstation version it's difficult to play mobile for anything more than 15 minutes