(Yicai Global) April 26 -- Honkai: Star Rail, a free-to-play 3D role-playing video game developed by China's MiHoYo, has broken a record of Tencent Holdings' PUBG Mobile by topping Apple App Store's download lists of free games in more than 113 countries and regions, including the United States and Japan.

As of April 23, the number of download countries of the fourth part of the Honkai series exceeded PUBG Mobile, a battle royale video game, even before the official launch, Shanghai Securities News reported today. PUBG Mobile topped the lists in 105 countries and regions on its debut. Honkai: Star Rail has over 30 million reservations globally as it launched public testing today.

MiHoYo's latest addition was initiated in 2019 with a development team of 500 people at its peak, producer David Jiang said in a recent interview with a Japanese esports media outlet.

The team decided to make the game into a turn-based strategy role-playing game so players take turns when playings so as to attract more players who are not very good at action games. Moreover, they sought to create a game akin to an animated television series with new updates every six weeks to update storylines and gameplay.

The company has started exploring artificial intelligence tools in its games as players of Honkai: Star Rail can interact with non-playable characters that are powered by AI to behave more dynamically.

Founded in 2011, MiHoYo has a headcount of more than 5,000 people. Its earlier hit game, Genshin Impact, has grossed over USD3 billion from global players in two years since its launch in 2020, according to Sensor Tower.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi