It wasn't really out of nowhere. They had other successful games already and good fanbase, as also communicated the development of Genshin for some time already

It wasn't really out of nowhere. They had other successful games already and good fanbase, as also communicated the development of Genshin for some time already before release. But for Western PC-Gamers, they definitely came from a niche not many people followed at the time. They were more on Mobile and in Asia known.