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HoYoverse began with miHoYo, a small studio founded in January 2011 by Shanghai Jiao Tong University students Cai Haoyu, Liu Wei, and Luo Yuhao. They wanted to create anime-style games for fans of the same culture, a niche that was still viewed in China as commercially uncertain. On February 13, 2012, Shanghai miHoYo Network Technology Co., Ltd. was officially registered.

At the start, the team received support from the Shanghai Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Center, including a 100,000 yuan interest-free loan and free office space for six months. In December 2012, miHoYo raised a 1 million yuan angel round. Its early-game FlyMe2theMoon introduced Kiana Kaslana, a character later tied to the company’s wider game universe. In 2013, Honkai Gakuen 2 gave the studio a larger audience in China.

In 2016, miHoYo released Honkai Impact 3rd, a mobile action game with graphics unusual for the segment at that time. Its annual revenue exceeded 1.1 billion yuan, while the team gained experience with gacha monetization, live content updates, and community management. On September 28, 2020, Genshin Impact launched on mobile, PC, and PlayStation 4, drawing from Japanese RPGs such as Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It earned $245 million in its first month and passed $1 billion in less than six months.

On February 14, 2022, miHoYo introduced HoYoverse as its international brand, with Cognosphere Pte., Ltd. registered in Singapore. The company expanded its global presence by establishing operations in Montreal, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Seoul. In 2022, it announced a Genshin Impact anime project with ufotable. Honkai: Star Rail followed on April 26, 2023, and Zenless Zone Zero launched in July 2024, while Square Enix and Tencent watched its global rise.