Thanks to the Internet and games-as-a-service models, video games have found tons of ways to monetize themselves other than initial sales, some of which are so lucrative that the game can be free to play. While some games such as Valorant and Fortnite focus on traditional item purchases, others like Genshin Impact use a gacha model that's extremely popular among mobile games. In gacha games, players buy loot boxes that drop random content, which can be anything from cosmetics to powerful new playable characters. Although some gaming fans are leery of the spending-rich gacha genre, Genshin Impact and its gacha peers are ascendant, drawing tons of fans.
In fact, some fans show a level of support that exceeds many others. Video game fans may have seen the term 'whale' tossed around now and again in discussions of gacha games. The meaning of the whale moniker isn't readily apparent at a glance, but it's a pretty straightforward term. Whales are fans of games with microtransactions who spend vastly more money on that game than its average player, therefore serving as a valued source of income for the game's developers. While games that encourage whales to invest heavily into loot boxes and limited edition items are controversial, they're a major part of the gacha game ecosystem, keeping many of these games afloat.
The History and Application of the Term Whale
The concept of whales has its roots in the gambling industry. Synonymous with the more famous term 'high roller,' whales are people who gamble particularly large amounts of money at a time, especially in games like poker. Casino operators often took part in 'whale hunting,' doing their best to convince these whales to play regularly. When the gacha video game industry rose to international prevalence in the 2010s via notable games ranging from Puzzle and Dragons to Raid: Shadow Legends, the gaming community took the term whale and applied it to players who similarly gambled large amounts of money on luck-based ways to win in-game items.
Whales take a number of forms in the gacha community. On the one hand, a gacha whale could be a non-professional gamer who simply has a high-paying job with plenty of free time that allows them to spend tons of income on a gacha game. On the other hand, some whales are the face of a game community. Genshin Impact and its peers reap the benefits of Internet content creators who stream or make videos about their favorite games where they spend however much money it takes to get every item. Games like Genshin Impact sometimes actively court these celebrity whales, giving them sponsorships to encourage the whales to keep acting as publicity sources.
It's worth noting that the term 'whale' appears outside of gacha games sometimes. For instance, while cosmetics in Valorant don't all come from random drops, Valorant's cosmetics are notoriously expensive, meaning most fans only buy their favorites. The select few players that buy every single skin could be considered whales. Even so, whales are largely associated with gacha games where fans may need to spend thousands of American dollars to get every item they want due to the randomized rewards.
The Legacy of the Gacha Genre
Not everyone is fond of the concept of gacha games. Many see the system as harmful in a variety of ways, manipulating players into spending more money, creating balance problems due to whales' ability to essentially buy the best characters, and so on. Even so, for many whales, pouring money into a game is just a way to express enjoyment for that game. No matter what one thinks of Genshin Impact's loot drops and every game like it, though, there's no denying that gacha games have left a major mark on the game industry. For better or worse, gacha games have reshaped how the industry thinks about monetizing video games.
Genshin Impact is available now for mobile devices, PC, PS4, and PS5. A Switch version is in development.