Genshin Impact players have lashed out over its 1st anniversary event by review bombing the game and even Honkai Impact 3rd. However, in a bizarre turn of events, even non-miHoYo games like Arknights and Clash of Clans are also getting 1-star reviews, citing Genshin Impact as the reason. Note that these strange reviews are only a tiny minority—the bulk of the negative reviews are still on Genshin Impact‘s store page.
Arknights is a tower defense game published by Yostar. The game has no connections with Genshin Impact, other than sharing the similarities of being a Chinese gacha game. However, that didn’t stop a handful of Play Store users from leaving 1-star reviews, such as the following:
The reviews above appear to be taking jabs at miHoYo’s handling of the 1st anniversary event for Genshin Impact. Clash of Clans also had a few similar reviews left by what seems to be trolls:
UPDATE: Punishing Gray Raven also suffered a few 1-star reviews over the same reason:
UPDATE 2: Twitter user @AkGoingPlaces compiled a growing list of games apparently getting 1-star reviews due to Genshin Impact. Even Google Classroom, an app that isn’t even a game, suffered the same treatment.
Review bombing is a practice that isn’t only limited to games. Movies and all kinds of products have faced the anger of the internet before. However, leaving negative reviews like this on games and apps that have nothing to do with miHoYo is certainly a bizarre move. While we won’t be surprised if Google Play Store takes down these reviews, it just goes to show that the internet can be a pretty wild place.
Ed. Note: While we at GamerBraves support everyone’s right to freedom of speech, we do hope that it is exercised reasonably.