Did Genshin Impact players really skip on getting Kaedehara Kazuha?

Kaedehara Kazuha is a 5-star Anemo Sword user in Genshin Impact first released in June 2021. You might have heard of many people “regretting” to skip his original run back in the day, for whatever reason they may have had. A quick search would make it seem like he would have been initially considered a hard skip.

His skillset aside, Kazuha’s first run was just before Kamisato Ayaka’s. Taking a sample slice of one week, she earned at least USD$49.5 million. Keep this figure in mind when seeing Kazuha in comparison. She was also playable during the game’s closed beta, so people did have hands-on experience with her playstyle, design, and general demeanour. That gives more time for people to get used to and like her, over Kazuha having a more limited 3 week timespan of availability and restrictive character trial.

With his return, you might see opinions saying he’s “overrated” and should be skipped regardless. Whether or not you agree, Kazuha being considered a “5-star Sucrose” is given as a reason why he is “overrated”, since Sucrose, as a 4-star, would be considerably easier to get Constellations for.

You see, Sucrose and Kazuha are both Anemo characters. They each have some crowd control in being able to pull enemies together, as well as having on-field Anemo Elemental Bursts that can be infused with another element. Last but not least, they can increase the Elemental Mastery stat of their party members. This similarity in effects, in theory, would make them interchangeable with one another.

Or, maybe they just don’t like him, who can definitively say?

As a Kazuha-haver myself armed with the ability to do math, I wanted to see where the money lies. Numbers are courtesy of AppMagic, exclusively from Android and iOS.

THE RAW NUMBERS

Kaedehara Kazuha was first introduced to Genshin Impact on 29 June 2021, with his rerun finally arriving 13 July 2022. It’s important to note that Kazuha was first available as the sole Character Event Wish in 2021, while he shares his July 2022 rerun with Klee’s third run. Figures are for first week sales, assuming all expenditure was exclusively on Event Character Wishes.

29 JUNE 2021 – 6 JULY 2021 (KAZUHA FIRST RUN)

13 JULY 2022 – 20 JULY 2022 (KAZUHA SECOND RUN, KLEE THIRD RUN)

For his solo run, Kazuha earned approximately USD$34.4 million over a week. As for his shared run with Klee, they earned around USD$62.7 million over the same one week timespan.

To try estimating how much Kazuha himself might have earned, let’s take a look at how much Klee earned by herself in her previous two runs, both of which were solo Character Event Wishes.

20 OCTOBER 2020 – 27 OCTOBER 2020 (KLEE FIRST RUN)

9 JUNE 2021 – 16 JUNE 2021 (KLEE SECOND RUN)

Klee earned roughly USD$52.6 million for her first run, and USD$29.5 million in her second, making an approximate 56.1% decrease in spending. Applying the same downward trend for Klee in her third appearance, she would have earned around USD$13 million by herself, which would mean Kazuha scores the remaining USD$49.7 million.

Based on user-submitted reports on Paimon.moe, Kazuha might have earned even more by himself, as only 10.6% of people who got the featured 5-star characters – at time of writing – obtained Klee. However, this is hardly a definitive assumption as you must import your results yourself to the website. This means that we are missing results from people who did not yet update their stats, or those who did not even know the website exists.

During this time period, Kazuha and Klee’s rerun hasn’t proven to be the runaway success that was Kamisato Ayaka’s solo rerun for Chinese players on iOS. Whether they’ll manage to get close will have to be seen. Considering the plateau as seen on AppMagic, it seems unlikely.

There is some modest increase in spending at least, even if you don’t get the comparatively astronomical spikes for other reruns.

WHY SKIP?

For Kazuha’s current rerun, he’s also arrived when people are likely looking forward to Sumeru with the Dendro element finally getting playable characters. Tighnari, Collei who is finally not a webcomic exclusive character, and Dori are all expected to arrive with the next game version update. Once again, if you are not going to spend any money and would prefer the Sumeru characters instead, you are very likely going to skip.

Since Dendro has been a long time coming, it will more than likely bring new mechanics into play. It would be “safer” to skip an Anemo character who shares some similarities with a 4-star character, than miss out on something fresh and exciting.

Klee also being rerun during this time may artificially inflate the actual figures that Kazuha earns. While we can reasonably assume she is on a downward trend, it doesn’t change the fact she is currently available, and people can spend money on her. She was also considered a top-tier Pyro DPS character, though it would seem both gameplay and financially, Hu Tao far outstrips her these days.

WHERE THE WIND BLOWS

Regardless of how much people have spent on other characters, as long as you like his playstyle, his character, and everything else, if you like Kazuha, you should get him, whether you’re a non-spender saving up or you’re one with some cash to spare.

As for whether people really have skipped Kazuha again, numbers wise, the answer would be “a bit less”. When you take into consideration the already outlined reasons for skipping the rerun, don’t be surprised to see people being conservative with their Intertwined Fates. This is why reruns are good: it gives time for people to save up for something else they prefer, while others yet have the chance to get something they missed before.

In any case, viva Kazuha mains, and see you next rerun.