Since 2020, HOYO-MiX, the in-house music studio of the video game developer company miHoYo, has been releasing music soundtracks for in-game Genshin Impact. The soundtracks have been primarily composed by Yu-Peng Chen, with orchestration from notable orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. The music has received generally positive reviews from gaming outlets and academics, and has won several awards including a nomination for the PlayStation Game Music Award in 2021.
Mondstadt In 2019, video game developer company miHoYo got composer and music producer Yu-Peng Chen, also known as Chen Zhiyi, to produce the soundtrack for their title Genshin Impact with their in-house music studio HOYO-MiX. It was Chen's first major video game work, and he described the project as a difficult challenge. The game has an open-world environment that features areas referred to as regions, with visual designs inspired by different world cultures. In composing the music for these regions, Chen chose a style that integrates elements of traditional folk music with Western musical arrangements."" . Tencent News. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved July 1, 2022. During the pre-release development stage, the game only featured Mondstadt and Liyue, two of the planned seven regions. On top of idyllic rural scenery, medieval European architectural styles and cultures inspired the design of Mondstadt. In composing the music for Mondstadt, Chen borrowed the language and rhythm of Impressionism and used the piano, tin whistle instruments, and medieval-style lutes. In composing the combat music, he used various composition techniques such as polyphony and taking orchestration elements from composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven.Kotowski, Don (April 5, 2021). "Yu-Peng Chen Interview: The Music of Genshin Impact". VGMO -Video Game Music Online-. Archived from the original on September 17, 2022. Retrieved February 28, 2022.
The Mondstadt soundtrack was performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Robert Ziegler as the conductor, and Nick Wollage and Laurence Anslow as music engineers. The coordination with the orchestra was done by Lei Cine Music Management (), with preliminary communication taking place five months before the recording. The recording sessions took place at AIR Studios. Zhang Lei (), the founder of Lei Cine Music Management, joined Chen Yupeng and Hoyo-Mix director Zoe Cai () for the recording in London. At AIR Studios, Chen had conducted the "Genshin Impact Main Theme" himself.
The Wind and The Star Traveler The first original soundtrack album to be produced for Genshin Impact was The Wind and The Star Traveler (), which got released on June 19, 2020. All fifteen soundtracks in the album were composed by Chen Yupeng. The next soundtrack album, City of Winds and Idylls (), is dedicated to the Mondstadt Chapter and commemorates the release of Genshin Impact. The album was released on digital music platforms on September 28, 2020. Two tracks, "Whirl of Boreal Wind" and "Symphony of Boreal Wind", were performed by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.
Vortex of Legends (), the fifth Genshin Impact soundtrack album, was released on April 2, 2021. It featured a total of 17 tracks composed by Chen Yupeng of Hoyo-Mix, each one an original composition for the Dragonspine area.
Liyue For Liyue, which had scenic Eastern fantasy as its basis, Chen used elements of Chinese folk music—traditional instruments, the pentatonic scale, and melodies—with Western romantic harmonies and orchestral arrangements. The Liyue soundtrack got performed by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra at the Shanghai Symphony Hall (), with Zhang Jiemin () as the conductor. An Dong (), one of Chen's mentors from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, served as a music supervisor during the scoring sessions of the soundtrack. Lu Xiaoxing (), noted as a co-awardee at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards for the soundtrack of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), served as the recording director and consultant. The recording of the Liyue soundtrack took five days. (July 16, 2020). "". The Paper. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
Jade Moon Upon a Sea of Clouds (), the third Genshin Impact soundtrack album to be produced, is dedicated to the Liyue Chapter. It featured a total of 69 tracks all composed by Chen.
The next soundtrack album for Liyue, Millelith's Watch (), got released on June 22, 2022. It featured a total of forty tracks dedicated to The Chasm area. The album saw guest musician Li Haitao () on the Morin Khuur. Li was known for performing the instrument on the streets of Shanghai, and had gained significant attention and following online for doing so since 2016. (July 8, 2020). "" . Xinmin Evening News. Archived from the original on January 17, 2023. Retrieved January 17, 2023.
The track "Rapid as Wildfire" was played during the coverage of a Berita RTM Lunar New Year broadcast in 2021.
Inazuma
Realm of Tranquil Eternity Like the soundtrack for the Liyue region, the music of Inazuma also took on the fusion of traditional or folk musical elements with Western orchestration. Much of the compositions took from historic Japanese melodies. One instance is "Sakura Sakura", which was adapted for the theme of the Electro Archon. After learning about the popularity of previous combat music with players, Chen chose to compose four combat themes for Inazuma, opposed to the Mondstadt and Liyue regions only having three combat themes each. He also adopted the rhythmic style of modern electronic music in composing the music. The Inazuma soundtrack was performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, with as the conductor and of Shangri-La Inc. as the scoring sessions director. The sound recording was done at multiple studios in China and Japan, and the mixing and mastering was done by music engineers Simon Rhodes and Simon Gibson of Abbey Road Studios in London. The recording process took around one and half months; the production for four months in total with preliminary communication accounted for.
Realm of Tranquil Eternity (), the seventh soundtrack album to be produced for Genshin Impact and dedicated to the Inazuma Chapter, was released on September 22, 2021. (September 17, 2021). "". miHoYo BBS. Archived from the original on October 13, 2022. Retrieved October 13, 2022.
Islands of the Lost and Forgotten The second soundtrack album dedicated to the Inazuma Chapter, Islands of the Lost and Forgotten (), and the tenth album to be released for Genshin Impact, got released on April 13, 2022. Its track listing was first announced on April 7. The album featured a total of 60 tracks for the Watatsumi Island, Seirai Island, Tsurumi Island areas and the Enkanomiya region; the music was composed by Chen, Yuan Dimeng, Ding Qian, Jiang Yijun, and Zhao Xin. It was a co-production between Hoyo-Mix and Sony Music Entertainment Japan.
Sumeru
Forest of Jnana and Vidya The music of Sumeru took inspiration from various cultures and regions of the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. For the rainforest area inspired by South Asia, the music featured traditional instruments including the bansuri performed by Eliza Marshall, the sitar performed by Jonathan Mayer and Arjun Verma, and the tabla performed by Kuljit Bhamra, among others. Chen incorporated elements of Indian classical music and yoga music into their work to give the music "a feeling of contemporary wisdom and spirituality". Composer Yu-Peng Chen also took reference from symphonic suites by Russian classical composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and orchestration elements from Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade". The London Symphony Orchestra, along with conductor Robert Ziegler returning from the Mondstadt soundtrack, performed the majority of the music. The orchestra recording was done at Abbey Road Studios in London. Other guest folk musicians included Baha Yetkin, Attab, and Kian on the oud, Steve Smith on the bouzouki and mandolin, Maya Youssef on the kanun, and Peyman on the santur. Mixing engineer Simon Gibson of Abbey Road Studios returned from the Liyue music production to work on the Sumeru soundtrack.
Forest of Jnana and Vidya (), the fourteenth Genshin Impact soundtrack album to be produced, is dedicated to the Sumeru Chapter. The track listing was officially announced on October 18, 2022, and the album was released on October 20. It featured a total of 100 tracks composed by Chen, Yuan Dimeng, Ding Qian, Jiang Yijun, and Zhao Xin. Aside from the London Symphony Orchestra, other participating orchestra groups included the Budapest Scoring Orchestra, International Master Philharmonic Orchestra (), and The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Other participating musicians included Gu Jiannan () on the bansuri, Ashley Blasse and Fan Ye () on the classical guitar, and Stephanie Gonley and Ming Liu () on the violin.
The Unfathomable Sand Dunes The Unfathomable Sand Dunes is the sixteenth album of the Genshin Impact music. The album was first announced on March 31, 2023, and its tracklist was announced the day before the album's release.
The desert area which was inspired by the Middle East the traditional instruments featured included the ney performed by John Plotner, the duduk performed by Martin Robertson, and the saz performed by Dursun Can Çakin. Kuljit Bhamra of Red Fort Studios took on the role of supervisor for the folk instrumental performances.
Fontaine The environmental music of Fontaine was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra in collaboration with folk artists, complementing Fontaine's overall European aesthetic. When creating the region's soundtrack, Genshin Impacts music team, Hoyo-Mix, drew inspiration from a variety of European musical traditions and instruments including the lute, including styles that emerged in Germany and Austria from the Renaissance through the Romantic era, as well as the works of French composers like Camille Saint-Saëns, Gabriel Fauré, and Maurice Ravel. The orchestration featured classic European instruments such as the lute, mandolin, and viol, while combat themes incorporated the glass harmonica to distinguish Fontaine's music from that of Mondstadt, which has a medieval tone.
According to one of the game's music producers, Fontaine's environments can be divided into two distinct musical settings: one for above-water situations and one for underwater, each with its own style. For above-water areas, the soundtrack mainly uses traditional European instruments, incorporating elements of jazz, waltz and Baroque music to evoke Fontaine's sense of romance. In contrast, the underwater music emphasizes electronic sounds and vocal chants, creating an atmosphere that is light and peaceful, helping to prevent players from feeling claustrophobic during underwater exploration. Fontaine's main theme uses a sonata form to convey narrative structure, with an expanded development section to enhance storytelling, and also employs montage techniques to reinforce its narrative flow.
Other soundtracks Natlan Natlan's soundtrack reflects the region's diverse cultural inspirations. HOYO-MiX blended Latin American and African musical elements, with teaser tracks featuring classical Spanish guitar strumming, castanet rhythms, and lyrics sung in Swahili. The Vienna University Philharmonic chorus sung the chants and chorus.
Nod-Krai Nod-Krai's soundtrack takes inspiration from Celtic and Nordic music. It was released on October 16, 2025.
The Stellar Moments series