Honkai Star Rail 4.6 Hits Sept 28, WuWa 3.7 Follows Sept 30
Two of China's biggest anime-style gacha games land their next versions within 48 hours of each other. On September 20, HoYoverse ran the Honkai: Star Rail 4.6 preview stream and confirmed a September 28 launch for "Dance With the Beast Before Moonrise." Kuro Games dated Wuthering Waves 3.7, "Prism's Illusion, Heart's Illumination," for September 30. Both new-character banner sets open in the same week, while the top three anime-game publishers now hold 78.6 percent of the market. Here is what each update contains, when the banners open, and what the numbers say about the sector.
What happened: two top anime games dated inside one week
Honkai: Star Rail 4.6 goes live September 28
The preview special aired at 19:30 on September 20 and confirmed a September 28, 2026 launch, with 300 Stellar Jade in three redeem codes and a new character, Zhenzhu . The current 4.5 version opened August 26 and, per Ali213's schedule breakdown, runs a 42-day cycle ending around October 8, so 4.6 arrives about ten days before 4.5 closes out.
The 300 Stellar Jade codes expire today
The three codes are KXHN8W7FGB6U, XEZNQE6FZSNY and ZXH68F7WYTN4, and all expire at 23:59:59 on September 21, 2026. Miss them and there is no reissue.
Wuthering Waves 3.7 opens September 30
Kuro Games dated 3.7 for September 30 at 11:00, with North American servers getting the banners on September 29. Phase one's new 5-star is Hsin, an Electro Rectifier and the game's first playable Sentinel; phase two adds Suoming, an Electro Sword user. Hsin runs alongside Iuno and Chisa reruns; Suoming pairs with Lynae and Lucilla. The update closes the current Xuanfang chapter and opens the Simulacrum Nexus of Mengzhou, a new area created by Hsin.
Reaction one: players have one wallet and two banners
Hsin's positioning makes this an expensive phase
Leading phase one with the first playable Sentinel is a deliberate power play. Hsin is an Electro Rectifier with her signature 5-star weapon, Blooming Jadehaven, on the weapon banner; Suoming takes the Electro Sword slot in phase two. Two new characters plus a signature weapon stretch a single version's budget.
Star Rail's pressure point is the overlapping 4.5 tail
Phase two of 4.5 does not close until October 7, while the 4.6 codes die on September 21. Event shops and timed missions clear at version handoff, so players settle two progress tracks in one week.
Reaction two: the top is consolidating and mid-size anime games are exiting
The top three hold 78.6 percent
Jiemian News' 2026 anime-game review puts the top three publishers at 78.6 percent of market share. Meanwhile 17173 counted this year's casualties: Bai Jing Hui Lang stopped content updates and Black Beacon went straight to shutdown, with more than a dozen anime games folding in a single year. iMedia CEO Zhang Yi told Securities Times that the Matthew effect will keep intensifying as user budgets, playtime, channels and publishing licences flow toward the biggest players.
Arknights: Endfield set the bar with RMB 1.2 billion in two weeks
What really squeezes smaller studios is supply density at the top. Jiemian's report says Arknights: Endfield launched in January 2026 and cleared RMB 1.2 billion in global revenue across platforms within two weeks, with PC at nearly 60 percent of users. Zenless Zone Zero passed 3.84 million global daily active users around Chinese New Year 2026. Once players get used to that cadence, a new anime game that fails to hook them in its first three hours rarely survives.
Analysis: the fight moved from quantity to supply density
Anime games take 18 of 2026's 72 major upcoming titles
In Game Daily's count of 72 key titles for 2026, anime-style games lead every genre with 18 entries, and Tencent alone has 27 titles in the list. Tencent's approach has also shifted from broad betting to selective targeting: its Saros Studio CRPG Gui Huan is already licensed and folds D20 dice mechanics into non-linear storytelling, with a mid-2026 open beta expected .
Update cadence is now the main retention tool
Star Rail runs a 42-day cycle and Wuthering Waves runs near-monthly. That is a double bind for smaller teams: match the content volume and match the production values. Sector revenue has fallen two years running while top-tier cadence has accelerated, which is consolidation, not a recovery.
Risk view: stacked launches create banner-skipping players
Skipping a banner is the rational move
When two top versions land in the same week, players start budgeting: which banner first, which one to skip. Over time that dilutes per-version spending, pushing publishers toward stronger character kits and more frequent crossovers. Players who already "only pull one of every two versions" rarely switch back.
Content leaks are becoming a legal matter
On August 26, the Shanghai High People's Court reported a case in which a minor datamined and leaked a new Honkai: Star Rail version, ordering RMB 1 million in damages to HoYoverse with the guardian held jointly liable . For gacha games whose revenue rhythm runs on preview streams, a leak front-runs the banners, which is why enforcement has hardened.
My take: this is concentrated harvesting, not an anime-game revival
I do not read two top versions colliding in late September as a sector recovery. A 78.6 percent share for the top three, a dozen shutdowns in a year, and top-line revenue counted in billions while mid-size studios debate survival all point one way: this is a supply-density race. For players, this autumn is generous. For the industry, this week looks like a ratings war, and the winners are the same familiar names.
So which way are you pulling this month: Star Rail 4.6, or Wuthering Waves 3.7's Hsin? Come discuss in the Gghubs comments.
FAQ
When does Honkai: Star Rail 4.6 release?
Version 4.6, "Dance With the Beast Before Moonrise," launches September 28, 2026. The preview special aired at 19:30 on September 20 and included three redeem codes worth 300 Stellar Jade total.
When do the Star Rail 4.6 redeem codes expire?
KXHN8W7FGB6U, XEZNQE6FZSNY and ZXH68F7WYTN4 expire at 23:59:59 on September 21, 2026. There is no official reissue, so redeem them the same day.
When does Wuthering Waves 3.7 launch and who are the new characters?
Wuthering Waves 3.7 launches September 30, 2026 at 11:00 UTC+8, with North American servers on September 29. Phase one features Hsin, an Electro Rectifier, and phase two features Suoming, an Electro Sword user.
Is there still room for new anime-style gacha games?
The top three publishers hold 78.6 percent of the market and more than a dozen anime games shut down or stopped updating in 2026. The realistic openings for smaller teams are niche mechanics and differentiated settings rather than anime-skinned card battlers.