Genshin Impact-themed Samsung foldable phones sell out in 14 minutes

Genshin Impact, an open-world action role-playing game, or RPG, has demonstrated its popularity once again as the game-inspired Samsung Electronics foldable smartphones and earbuds sold out shortly after they went on sale last week.

According to Chinese game and animation studio HoYoverse, the 100 units of the Genshin Impact edition of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the 200 units of the game-themed Buds 2 Pro earbuds were all gone only 14 minutes after they became available for purchase on Samsung's Galaxy Store starting at noon on Dec. 21.

The prices of the special edition Z Fold 4 and Buds2 Pro were 2,388,000 won ($1,880) and 329,000 won, respectively.

Inspired by Ganyu, a widely played character in Genshin Impact, the designs of the Samsung foldable smartphone and earbuds were first unveiled at G-Star -- South Korea’s biggest annual gaming convention -- held in Busan last month. Tens of thousands visited the exhibition booths of HoYoverse to get a glimpse of the game developer’s collaboration with Samsung Electronics.

Genshin Impact officially began its service in September 2020. The open-world action RPG has seen immense success since its release. According to market tracker Sensor Tower, the game logged the third-highest revenue in its global mobile games rankings, earning over $1.5 billion in revenue from the beginning of this year to Dec. 20.

Genshin Impact’s popularity has continued to rise in South Korea, as it became the gaming app users spent the longest time playing among the country’s top eight mobile games with the highest earnings in November.