News

Gundam Franchise's Annual Sales Top 100 Billion Yen for 1st Time

Bandai Namco Holdings reported on Wednesday that the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise earned 101.7 billion yen (about US$783 million) across the entire holding group's subsidiaries in the fiscal year ending in March 2022. This marks the first time the franchise has earned more than 100 billion yen (about US$770 million) in one fiscal year.

The earnings are a 7% increase from the previous year, when it earned 95 billion yen (about US$731 million), and about two times more than the franchise had earned in 2010. The figure combines revenues from across the group's portfolio, which includes television and theatrical anime, games, merchandise, events, and toys and hobby goods — particularly Gundam plastic models. The toy segment of the franchise has also seen steadily increasing earnings, with 44.2 billion yen (about US$340 million) earned in fiscal year 2021, almost a threefold increase from 2010's 15 billion yen (about US$115 million) earnings.

The Gundam franchise now represents more than 10% of the sales of Bandai Namco Holdings. The company's sales for the Dragon Ball franchise is still higher at 127.6 billion yen (about US$983 million), but unlike Dragon Ball, Bandai Namco Holdings is the primary intellectual property rights holder for Gundam.

The company projects that the franchise will earn 119 billion yen (about US$916 million) in the next fiscal year, or about 13% of the company's projected overall sales of 880 billion yen (about US$6.7 billion).

Source: Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)