Genshin Impact 6.3 ‘Luna IV’ special program lands on January 2

Genshin Impact’s next big special program is coming sooner than players expected. The Version 6.3 “Luna IV” livestream is scheduled for January 2, 2026, and the announcement dropped unusually early in the middle of the Luna III cycle. For a game that usually reveals program dates roughly a week before airing, a three-week heads-up has grabbed a lot of attention across the community.

Genshin Impact 6.3 Luna IV livestream date and time

The Luna IV special program is locked in for January 2, 2026. HoYoverse is slotting it into a different time window than the usual Friday-night slot in China, shifting to a midday broadcast.

For players outside the main server regions, the timings translate roughly as follows:

How to watch the Luna IV special program

The special program will air on the official Genshin Impact Twitch channel first, then be uploaded as a VOD to the game’s YouTube channel shortly afterward.

Step 1: At your local livestream time, go to the official Twitch channel at twitch.tv/genshinimpactofficial and log in if you want to chat during the broadcast.

Step 2: If you miss the live run, wait roughly an hour, then check the official YouTube channel at youtube.com/c/GenshinImpact, where the full special program is typically uploaded as a replay.

Promo codes for Primogems and upgrade materials are usually shown during the stream with a limited redemption window, so watching live or catching the VOD early is still the safest way to claim them before they expire.

Why the 6.3 livestream announcement came so early

The timing of the announcement has sparked almost as much conversation as the content itself. The Luna IV program was revealed more than three weeks ahead of its air date, while Version 6.2 “Luna III” is still fresh. That’s a sharp break from the pattern of week‑ahead notices players are used to.

Several practical reasons line up with the schedule:

• Holiday scheduling – The usual announcement window would have fallen right around New Year’s Eve. Locking in the date earlier lets the team front‑load marketing work before holiday time off and avoids pushing out marketing posts when both staff and players are scattered.
• Genshin Fes timing – Genshin Fest runs January 1–4 in Shanghai. The Luna IV special program lands on day one, at midday China time, and players expect it to be broadcast live to the on‑site audience. An early reveal gives attendees time to plan around the show and mirrors what happened with Version 5.0’s Natlan program.
• Time slot shift – Instead of the usual Friday evening slot, the 6.3 stream is at noon in China and in the middle of the night for North America. Dropping the announcement well in advance gives players in awkward time zones a chance to plan around sleep or work.

Community reactions have ranged from surprise to speculation about “something big” coming with Luna IV, but the confirmed factors are firmly logistical: a new time slot, a festival crowd, and a holiday‑adjacent date that’s easier to handle with a longer runway.

How Luna IV fits into the Version 6.3 schedule

Version 6.3 Luna IV is expected to roll out on January 14, 2026, immediately after Luna III’s Phase 2 ends. That keeps Genshin on its standard six‑week version cadence, with 6.3 covering mid‑January through late February.

That window has two big implications:

• Lantern Rite alignment – Lunar new year in 2026 falls in the second half of February. Past Lantern Rite events have timed their narrative climax to match New Year’s Day, and players are expecting the main Liyue festival arc to occupy the latter half of 6.3 rather than being crammed into the first wave of events.
• Archon quest pacing – Luna IV is positioned to carry both ongoing Nod-Krai story content and the game’s flagship annual festival. The early program announcement gives the team more room to frame how that content will be balanced across phases and events.

The special program traditionally reveals the full event slate, banner order, and a clearer picture of how Lantern Rite is nested inside the version, so this livestream should be the point where that structure finally becomes concrete.

What to expect from the 6.3 special program content

HoYoverse hasn’t published an official segment list for the Luna IV special program, but the broad strokes of what 6.3 covers are already defined in the game’s version roadmap and surrounding ecosystem.

New characters and banners. Luna IV is the patch where Columbina, the long‑teased Fatui Harbinger Damselette, steps onto the stage as a playable character. She’s tied into the Nod-Krai arc and the new Lunar reaction system, and she’s expected to headline one of the character banners. Version 6.3 is also the moment where the “White Horse Adeptus” Zi Bai and the 4‑star Geo support Illuga enter the rotation, alongside high‑profile reruns such as Neuvillette and Ineffa.

Weapons and artifacts. Alongside the character banners, the program should finally formalize signature weapons like Columbina’s catalyst Nocturne's Curtain Call and Zi Bai’s sword Lightbearing Moonshard, plus new artifact sets tuned around Lunar reactions and Hexerei teams. For players who have already invested into Nod-Krai units like Flins, Lauma, and Nefer, these announcements will be central to long‑term build planning.

Events and Lantern Rite. The second half of 6.3 is where the annual Lantern Rite festival in Liyue lands. Historically, Lantern Rite brings a cluster of event modes, a free 4‑star Liyue character choice, an event weapon, cosmetics, and login rewards that add up to a significant Primogem haul. Expect the special program to map out which minigames are back, what’s new, and how the event intersects with this year’s Luna IV story beats.

Story updates. On the narrative side, Luna IV continues the Nod-Krai chapter and the ongoing “Song of the Welkin Moon” archon quest line. The program usually premieres a cinematic trailer with new Harbinger appearances, regional story hints, and teases for the next chapter, so this is where players will get their first look at how Columbina’s playable debut folds back into the main plot.

None of that changes the usual structure of a Genshin Impact special program. Expect the familiar three‑host setup, combat showcases of upcoming characters, a tour of new areas and bosses, and interspersed reward codes.

How the new stream time impacts players in different regions

The time slot shift that makes the Luna IV program line up with Genshin Fest has a cost: it’s much less convenient for a chunk of the global player base.

• For North American players, the show starts at midnight on the East Coast and late evening on the West Coast on January 1.
• In much of Europe, it’s a 5–7 AM stream on January 2, which means setting an alarm if you want to watch live.
• In Asia and China, the time is more comfortable, sitting in the early afternoon and syncing cleanly with the on‑site festival schedule.

That unevenness is exactly why the date landed so early. Players who care about watching the reveals as they happen now have several weeks to decide whether they’re staying up, waking up early, or catching the YouTube VOD later in the day.

For Genshin Impact, Luna IV is doing several things at once: closing in on the heart of the Nod-Krai narrative, pushing the new Lunar reaction ecosystem to the forefront with Columbina, and carrying the flagship Lantern Rite festival into a packed February. The early special program announcement and shifted broadcast time are less about mystery and more about logistics, but they underline how much is being crammed into Version 6.3 — enough that a lot of players are already writing it off as a “peak patch” weeks before the trailer even rolls.