Ok again I want to say when I'm doing these kinds of topics I'm not singling anybody out. I just happened to see this video by fellow Genshintuber RedFlaim and it got me interested in talking about the topic.
Side Note: Also the site he's using is only for the Chinese market but don't let that be a big deal because while other markets tend to surpass the raw numbers of the Chinese market these days they still typically stick with the same trends. For example Ei and Kokomi's rerun did take the top spot for a long time in China with over $30 million spent but globally it claimed the spot with over $500 million. So it's the same rank just with a much larger figure. Moving along.
So in the video and I think in most people's opinions based on other videos I've seen and comments all across social media the belief is that banners perform well based on a character's playability and specifically comparing that playability to other available options and then also the marketing that MiHoYo does specifically to get players hyped. RedFlaim also added that a small bump to their performance could be the Weapons Banner that runs with them since the data he found bunched the earnings together and also 4* characters that ran with them. But his own video also points out that that's likely not the case since for example Venti did his best on a banner with no unique weapons and Childe's rerun is dead last even though it introduced a very desired 4* in Rosaria.
I'm no expert either but personally I don't think performance or even marketing campaigns really play as large of a role in how well a banner will do as people think. If that was the case Zhongli who still claims the record for most watched demo should have been making MiHoYo bank. His initial release was criticized but that only led to MiHoYo turning him into the single most broken character of the game with a build that buffs every part of his skill set and his skill set which buffs everybody's damage output on top of making them effectively invincible. Personally as a casual player who does not want to think too much about mechanics Zhongli is likely the only reason I've been able to keep up with the content so far. He's my go to when I'm building Friendship for new characters that I don't want to level up. He's the one I bring along to anything I think is going to be tricky. As some players have even put it this single character trivializes the game and many have become dependent on him as their skills decline. (Also if you don't want to believe me on Zhongli well you know Qiqi's demo is in second place. 
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So taking just that example to start why is Zhongli a mostly underperforming banner? The #1 biggest push for any banner in my opinion? Mass Media. I think what determines whether a banner will top the charts like Ayaka's rerun and Ei's runs or hit rock bottom like Childe and Klee's reruns all comes down to what the big names in Social Media are saying. And the only way the average player knows what they are saying is what Mass Media tells them they are saying.
Back to Zhongli. When he was first teased we had the demo to end all demos. Everybody was abuzz with anticipation and this was broadcast across the board. But there was a specific way it was being broadcast that really determined what would end up happening. Zhongli was being called a DPS character with game trivializing damage. The biggest content creators talked about how his damage output would put everybody else to shame. His shield was just a bonus and would mean you never have to dodge anything while doing that all important DPS. So what happened? He released but as the Support Character he was designed to be. And simultaneously all the creators and all of Mass Media cried out over MiHoYo's "greed" claiming that they'd deliberately nerfed the character for profits. It didn't matter that most of it didn't make sense. It didn't matter that their previous DPS claims had been debunked the whole time. It didn't matter that MiHoYo officially stated he was never a DPS character. The damage was done and his banner was a bust. This so-called controversy is still plaguing MiHoYo to this day.
We can do this for any character. Childe? On his first release he was claimed as a powerful DPS character and early videos about his performance were positive. Once his banner ended though suddenly the tone shifted and media began talking about how he was niche and relied on his C4 to truly be effective. At the same time there was the claim again about MiHoYo's "greed" claiming that they knew he'd only be usable at C4 and deliberately made him that way to force players to spend until C4. This caused outrage and surprise surprise both his reruns were far less successful.
Klee? On first release all the chatter was about how cute she was and how damaging her DPS was. Good character. Banner did well. Then the chatter became about how clunky she was and how she was a glass cannon. Her rerun ****ed.
Raiden Shogun. Since being teased back in v1.6 there was really only 1 thing on everybody's mind. Booba sword. That's really all it takes. Don't underestimate the power of memes guys. Just being Booba sword got Ei to the top and what kept her there was a great many players incessantly claiming how impressive she was again in terms of DPS. Most of these guys are whale players so the performance you see in their videos are based on tons of investment both monetary and time spent on perfecting her rotation and build. The meme of the Booba sword has not gone away and chatter about how good she is hasn't either. Not surprising her rerun was just as good as her initial run.
Yae Miko. You'd think that a character introduced all the way back in v1.5 and present in the story since v2.0 would have already had all the marketing hype in the world. And you'd be right. Yae Miko was one of the most anticipated characters probably rivaled only by Ayaka who was known about since the beta. But her banner didn't do nearly as well. In Red Flaim's video even he repeats the media message: Yae's kit isn't good. This is mostly because if you watch videos about her most of the meta content creators claim her to be a "Sub-DPS with off-field damage that takes too long to set up" and because that's how they use her they more importantly complain about her. Similar to Zhongli if you claim a character does one thing but they don't then the message will be inaccurate. More importantly nobody really analyzes how inaccurate the claims are they just follow along.
You can do this for anybody else you'd like. Take a character. What did media say about them when they were first teased? What did media say about them while they were running? And if they had a rerun what was media saying for each run? Did the sales seem to track well with their message?
My point for this is to all of us players. I sincerely suggest for us to critically listen to the stuff being told to us. Does it even make sense? Because when we don't we play right into their hands and they can herd us like sheep to do whatever they want us to do.
This goes for everything else in our lives too btw. Don't think it's just limited to which Genshin characters we end up simping for. For example Mass Media once upon a time got the British to believe 5G signal towers could spread disease. It told all of us that carrots were the only thing good for our eyes. Media told us that coffee was bad for us. I'm sorry I mean good for us. Wait no it's bad for us. No no it's good for us! Hang on is it good or bad? And they've told us we only use 10% of our brains. That's still being stated as fact in Hollywood by "smart" characters. Media has also told us when something is cultural appropriation and when it isn't. And for the most part we end up believing all of it even if for example the people who would know best tell us different.
See how that can be a problem? To be fair most of the time this stuff is done just to sell you something. Carrots being good for your eyes would likely get you to buy carrots and boost sales. Same goes for coffee or when another product is sluggish they'll tell you something bad about coffee to get you to not buy it and hopefully buy that other product. Bottled water for example. Telling you that you only use 10% of your brain means you might hear something about someone super smart and then believe that there's some secret method to boost your brain power. Money well spent. 
But this stuff can also be used to influence your beliefs. Telling you 5G spreads illness gives your region time to lag behind on 5G development because "the people" are against it.
So it is very important to notice what's really going on and not to let it influence you. You should be the one to decide what to believe in not anyone else but to be able to do that you need to first recognize why anything is being told to you to begin with and then to think for yourself.
We're headed to Sumeru now. Half the media is promoting it as a reason why you should save up and skip over Yoimiya. The other half is telling you to boycott this game because of it. What have you decided to do and more importantly why?
Tips and Tricks from a Super Casual Genshin f2p
