News
Anime DVD/BD Market in Japan Shrank in 2022
posted on by Alex Mateo
The Japan Video Software Association (JVA) released last week the Blu-ray Disc and DVD sales and shipment statistics in Japan for the first half of 2022. The home video sales of Japanese animation for general audiences (as opposed to children only) during this period were 11.82 billion yen (about US$86 million), a significant decrease of 54.6% from the previous year.
For comparison, sales for the first half of 2021 were about 26.08 billion yen (about US$190 million), which was a significant increase over the 18.67 billion yen (about US$136 million) during the same period in 2020.
Home video sales of Japanese animation for children were 403 million yen (about US$2.93 million), a decrease of 46.4% from the previous year. Sales to rental stores of Japanese animation for general audiences were 904 million yen (about US$11 million), down 27.9% from 2021.
The numbers may be attributed to the long-term decline in sales of packaged products and the lower consumption rate due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, last year's numbers were largely due to the record sales of the Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train anime film.
The total sales for home video software in Japan were 55.82 billion yen (about US$406 million), down 19.7% from the previous year. Of this number, Blu-ray Discs accounted for 32.93 billion yen (about US$239 million), and DVDs accounted for 22.89 billion yen (about US$166 million).
Source: Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)
