Genshin Impact: the 7.1 special program airs Saturday, September 12 at 2:00 PM Paris time — where to watch it, redeem codes, and what the schedule already confirms

HoYoverse has set the date. The 7.1 special program for Genshin Impact will air on Saturday, September 12, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. (UTC+2), on the publisher's Twitch and YouTube channels. The announcement was published on Monday, September 7, 2026 on the game's French news feed, and it fits in three sentences.

Three sentences, and two traps: the time, which the publisher does not give in the same reference frame from one version to the next, and the release date of 7.1, which no one has published and which many believe they know.

Where to watch it, and why the time requires no calculation this time

HoYoverse's French text is unambiguous: "The special program for the new version of Genshin Impact will be broadcast on September 12, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. (UTC+2) on our official Twitch and YouTube channels." In September, France is at UTC+2. 2:00 p.m. UTC+2 is 2:00 p.m. in Paris, down to the minute, with no arithmetic required.

This convenience is a seasonal coincidence, not a habit of the publisher: the time zone shown in the announcement has taken three different values in seven months.

Two breaks stand out. The five previous ones fell on a Thursday or a Friday; the one for 7.1 falls on a Saturday, a first over the period. And the gap between the announcement and the broadcast goes from two days to five. The publisher comments on neither.

The word "Twitch" in the announcement, incidentally, does not link to the channel, but to a HoYoverse in-house shortener that lands on a specific entry in the schedule of twitch.tv/genshinimpactofficial. This slot does exist, it is titled Version 7.1 Special Program Preview and it is set for 12:00 p.m. UTC, i.e. 2:00 p.m. in Paris: the schedule confirms the announcement down to the minute. Two details are worth noting. The slot's title is in English, as HoYoverse has not localized its own Twitch schedule. And no end time is listed: the program's duration is not published anywhere.

On YouTube, the announcement links to @GenshinImpact, whose official "Special Program | Genshin Impact" playlist archives previous broadcasts: a way to catch up on the livestream without going through a re-upload.

The redeem codes: what the publisher promises, and what it does not publish

The heart of the announcement is the paragraph everyone comes looking for: "This special program will be an opportunity to reveal more about the content of the new version 7.1 and the latest developments in the game. What's more, a few redeem codes and other small gifts will be waiting for you during the broadcast!"

Read the qualifier: "a few." No number, no content, no validity period. HoYoverse uses this exact same sentence in the announcements for the five previous special programs: it is a stock phrase, not information.

And the publisher does not release the codes in advance. We went through its four French news feeds on Friday, September 11, 2026: the only element relating to 7.1 there is the announcement of the livestream, and the corresponding HoYoLAB post reproduces the text without adding anything to it. The codes appear on screen during the broadcast, and nowhere before.

The practical consequence, and it is a severe one: the redemption window is counted in hours, not days. Lists circulating a week after a special program are, in their overwhelming majority, expired. As a point of reference, the three codes distributed during the 7.0 special program, as we had recorded them, were Everwinter, OntoSnezhnaya, and Odette0812: precedents, not predictions. No one can publish the September 12 codes before the broadcast without inventing them.

All the more reason to prepare the ground before the live. Online redemption goes through the official redemption page and requires three things: an open session, the server, and the account's UID. Queried without a connection on September 11, 2026, the interface responds in French, "Veuillez d'abord vous connecter à votre Pass miHoYo" ("Please log in to your miHoYo Pass first"). Nothing lengthy, but everything goes wrong when done in the rush of a code displayed on screen for a few seconds.

What the livestream will cover, and what no official source mentions

The announcement only promises "the content of the new 7.1 version" and "the latest game developments." Nothing more specific. As of September 11, 2026, HoYoverse has not published any preview of 7.1: no character, no wishes, no event, no patch notes. The feed dedicated to update details still stops at 7.0 from August 12.

What is circulating about the content of 7.1 therefore comes from test version data mining, which contradicts itself on names. We are not repeating any of it here: a false name published the day before a livestream stays online long after being debunked.

What the official schedule actually confirms

The livestream is not arriving at just any time: it falls ten days before the closing of the three wishes of 7.0's Phase 2, whose announcements all display the same window, "2026/9/1 18:00~2026/9/22 14:59," in server time.

This mention of server time is what trips up most reports. The in-game announcements interface, queried on the European server, states its time zone in a dedicated field: UTC+1. The wishes therefore close on Tuesday, September 22, 2026 at 3:59 PM Paris time — our conversion, based on this field; HoYoverse never writes the Paris equivalent, and we continue, as it does, to give these windows in server time.

The same interface provides a second, more rarely read marker: the date on which the 7.0 announcements stop being displayed in-game. "The Snezhnaya region is available!" and "Version 7.0 Update Details" run until September 22, 2026 at 11:00 PM, server time; the current season of Stellar Paradisia and the Wish "Song of the Welkin Moon: Fires of Foundry" until September 23 at 12:00 AM.

What can be concluded about the release of 7.1? Nothing, and it must be stated clearly: HoYoverse has not published any release date for version 7.1. These times only describe the end of service for 7.0 content. For context, and without extrapolation, here is what the previous five versions produced.

Five versions, twelve to thirteen days apart, and five Wednesdays. That's an observable regularity, not a commitment: applied to September 12, it points to the last week of the month, something no HoYoverse document states. If a date circulates before the broadcast, it doesn't come from the publisher.

What closes between the livestream and the version switch

The Special Program doesn't interrupt anything: 7.0 keeps running while it airs. Several timers, however, reach their end shortly afterward — in-game announcement deadlines, in server time:

• September 14, 2026, 3:59 AM — "Trounce Domain Challenge" and Envisaged Echoes "Hard Mode: Tactical Formation."
• September 17, 2026, 3:59 AM — "Stronghold Challenge."
• September 21, 2026, 3:59 AM — "Frostbourne" Battle Pass and "Stargazing Journey: Delight."
• September 22, 2026, 3:59 AM — "Chthonic Carnage."
• September 22, 2026, 2:59 PM — the three Phase 2 wishes.

We've devoted a dedicated article to each of these events: this list is just an end-of-version reminder.

In practice

The appointment is set for Saturday, September 12, 2026, at 2:00 PM Paris time, on Twitch and YouTube, with no announced duration and, for once, no time zone conversion needed. Redeem codes will only be visible during the broadcast and expire quickly: log into your session on the official redemption page before the live show rather than searching for it during.

Everything else comes down to patience. No release date for 7.1 exists as of this writing. What we know from official sources fits in one line: 7.0's wishes close on September 22 at 2:59 PM server time, and the version's announcements disappear from the game shortly after.