Anime DVD/BD Sales in Japan

39 Responses to “1999 and Earlier, Average Sales (including re-releases)”

1. torisunanohokori says:

   July 28, 2014 at 2:34 PM

   Where does the 9480 figure in first releases sales for Brain Powered come from? The DVD/BD wiki only seems to have the box data: http://dvdbd.wiki.fc2.com/wiki/%E3%83%96%E3%83%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%91%E3%83%AF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89

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   • something says:

     July 28, 2014 at 3:09 PM

     From the unfortunately now defunct livedoor thread cited at the top. I’ll have to see if I saved an offline copy to check against.

     DVDBD wiki only has the DVD re-releases, the original would have been VHS/LD I assume.

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     • Progeusz says:

       July 28, 2014 at 3:24 PM

       http://log.shipweb.jp/?mode=datview&board_name=poverty&thread_key=1379599338&thread_id=1373718
       Repost with date of relevant week. Search for 9,480.
       It led me to:
       http://www3.atchs.jp/test/read.cgi/urisure/1359202731/43
       Which should be enough of a source?

       Reply
       • something says:

         July 28, 2014 at 3:41 PM

         Ah yeah that whole thread looks like something I had saved somewhere, I’ve been tempted to mine it for data but oh the time it would take… for stuff that’s very old.

         LD Rankings
         *23　***,377　*10,757　**8　ブレンパワード１巻
         *19　***,376　**9,127　**5　ブレンパワード２巻
         *20　***,266　**8,627　**4　ブレンパワード３巻
         *28　***,217　**8,238　**4　ブレンパワード４巻
         *21　***,389　**8,132　**4　ブレンパワード５巻
         *22　***,160　**8,148　**5　ブレンパワード６巻
         *49　***,128　**7,698　**5　ブレンパワード７巻
         *44　***,*99　**7,211　**4　ブレンパワード８巻
         **8　***,211　**8,076　**4　ブレンパワード９巻

         VHS Ranking
         *41　***,501　**2,560　**2　ブレンパワード１巻
         *21　**1,339　**1,339　**1　ブレンパワード２巻
         *20　**1,659　**1,659　**1　ブレンパワード３巻
         *31　***,524　**1,109　**2　ブレンパワード４巻
         *27　***,821　***,821　**1　ブレンパワード５巻
         v6 unranked
         v7 unranked
         *32　***,710　***,710　**1　ブレンパワード８巻
         *22　**1,114　**1,114　**1　ブレンパワード９巻

         Also wow LD thresholds got low around this time. VHS thresholds were more on par with modern DVD thresholds, though a bit higher.

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         • Progeusz says:

           July 28, 2014 at 4:08 PM

           Glad it’s the correct one.

           Reply
         • torisunanohokori says:

           July 29, 2014 at 1:14 AM

           Interesting, thanks. It kinda slipped my mind for some reason that VHS and LDs would have been a much bigger thing back then.

           Reply
2. Timeslot History: 1994-2000 Wrapup | Animetics says:

   September 29, 2014 at 3:52 PM

   […] them, late night slots and WOWOW accounted for half of the ten 10k+ hits from that same 1997-2000 time period; Brain Powerd, Cowboy Bebop, Hand Maid May, Initial D, and To […]

   Reply
3. Ejc says:

   October 1, 2014 at 6:30 AM

   You can find the old Livedoor thread on Wayback Machine (but it is from Nov 18, 2011): http://web.archive.org/web/20111118054123/http://jbbs.livedoor.jp/bbs/read.cgi/music/3914/1295395600/

   I looked at the sales for Cowboy Bebop, because someone on MAL hilariously stated it was a flop without posting any proof of this… but didn’t it average 19,651?

   3,330 VHS + 7,673 LD + 8,648 DVD = 19,651. Since we don’t know how Vol.1~3 of the DVD sold, then I simply divided the DVD total by 6 instead of 9, to get the 8,648 DVD average.

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   • something says:

     October 1, 2014 at 7:27 AM

     That’s the exact page I used for this, yeah. Not sure why they divided the DVDs by 9 instead of the 6 we have data for, that’s silly. Just an old oversight from when this tracking was new I guess. I only used the aggregate charts posted throughout that page though,so I’ll need to adjust its DVD value.

     (The Bebop details are in post #11 for those wondering)

     By the way, my last captured version of the page is from Aug 2012 so it’s a bit more recent, if you want to grab that: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31857183/Livedoor%20historical%20thread%202012-08-09.html

     Also added the link to this version into the post.

     Reply
4. Exukvera says:

   March 10, 2015 at 8:17 PM

   Digimon Adventure’s 15th anniversary BD box sold over 10k. Should it be included or not?

   Reply
   • something says:

     March 10, 2015 at 8:41 PM

     Hmm, I haven’t really been updating this list, honestly. It was a one-off I copied over from the old Mania forums. I’d also have to find out what its original singles sales were, if they ever ranked.

     Reply
5. Randy says:

   January 31, 2016 at 12:29 AM

   Where do the first week sales and other pre-final VHS/LD sales figures for some series like Eva and Nadesico come from? Didn’t weekly reports for these formats only begin at 1999? It’s sad that Eva and a few others have these numbers listed while most others like Sailor Moon don’t.

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   • something says:

     January 31, 2016 at 10:09 AM

     Oricon started in 1999 but video disc sales have been tracked since long before then. We just don’t have access to a lot of that old data, and it’s not directly comparable to today’s data due to how different the market was and all that. So it’s mostly just the top sellers that people bother digging up data for when it comes to really old stuff.

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     • Randy says:

       February 4, 2016 at 10:11 PM

       Oh. That’s at least hopeful. Anyway, from what we have right now, is it safe to say none of the pre-2000s anime (except Eva) crossed the 30,000 mark in first-week sales? That’s what I’ve been trying to confirm to be exact.

       Reply
       • something says:

         February 4, 2016 at 10:36 PM

         At least based on the data we have, that’s a safe bet, yeah.

         Reply
         • Randy says:

           February 4, 2016 at 11:03 PM

           Thanks! One more thing, since it seems the BD sales for Macross F and Code Geass R2 come from the yearly chart, is it likely that their BD volumes did not cross the 10,000 during the first week?

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           • Randy says:

             February 4, 2016 at 11:04 PM

             And Gundam 00 S2 too, sorry.

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             • something says:

               February 4, 2016 at 11:49 PM

               They released BDs alongside DVDs, but back then Oricon did not publish weekly BD sales numbers, only rankings. So we only know their BD sales because of the yearly lists, not broken down by week.

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               • Randy says:

                 February 4, 2016 at 11:51 PM

                 And unlike the VHSs and LDs before, there are no buried data on their first-week BD sales out there at all?

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                 • something says:

                   February 4, 2016 at 11:52 PM

                   Nothing we have access to, if so.

                   Reply
6. kommsussertod says:

   March 1, 2016 at 6:08 AM

   Is it safe to assume that Eva has surpassed 200k total counting the BD release?
   At the time of first week results (2015.08.30) someone posted on /a/ this sales data:
   111,558 (LD/VHS original release – 1996)
   ***,224 (DVD re-release – 1997)
   **3,570 (DVD re-re-release – 2000)
   **7,455 (DVD re-re-re-release – 2003) – Individual release
   *25,581 (DVD re-re-re-release – 2003) – Box release
   *25,964 (DVD re-re-re-re-release – 2007)
   *26,353 (BD/DVD re-re-re-re-re-release – 2015)
   Do we have any idea if this data is accurate or not? Thanks!

   Reply
7. Ejc says:

   September 14, 2016 at 4:27 AM

   I’m not sure how long this has been on the DVD/BD Japanese sales wiki, but there are now average sales for the original releases and also the totals given for all the re-releases, with the number of re-releases given in brackets, for anime from 1989 to 1999:
   http://dvdbd2.wiki.fc2.com/

   Notice the extra 2 in the url compared to the usual http://dvdbd.wiki.fc2.com/

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   • something says:

     September 14, 2016 at 9:45 AM

     Guess I ought to get to updating this page at some point then. I tend to forget it exists. Will try to do something this weekend, thanks.

     Reply
8. something says:

   September 17, 2016 at 2:09 AM

   This post has been updated based on the data available from the pre-2000 DVD/BD wiki.

   Reply
9. something says:

   September 19, 2016 at 3:35 PM

   One thing to note is that the top five studios (Sunrise, Toei, Deen, Pierrot, Group TAC) make up 46.3% of this entire list.

   We can’t cleanly compare these numbers against the 2000-present data (really more like 2004-present in terms of having full data available) because I don’t include kids shows in the latter. But those same five studios only make up 13.2% of all series since ~2004.

   The current top five studios (JC Staff, Deen, Madhouse, A1, Gonzo) account for 24.6% of the total.

   Even if adding kids shows would change things somewhat, there’s been a major diversification of studios since the 90s. Also of note: only one studio returns (Deen). Though Sunrise is virtually tied with Gonzo and since they do more anime now than Gonzo does, should be passing them easily.

   In part this seems obvious. The number of shows per year has also increased dramatically, so the same few studios couldn’t handle everything. True, the length of shows has also decreased markedly with so many late night anime being one cour, but there’s still only so many that one studio can do at a time.

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   • Primadog says:

     September 20, 2016 at 12:48 AM

     Top five measured by number of productions, revenue, total units sold?

     Reply
     • something says:

       September 20, 2016 at 6:26 AM

       Most prolific in terms of pure number of productions.

       Reply
10. Yaoi-Senpai says:

    June 8, 2017 at 1:19 PM

    Eva is the most sold anime in Japan, okay what’s the second? Bakemonogatari?
    I pressed at the avg list and Eva avg is 111k, second is Kidou Senkan Nadesico with 33k. But I remember someone said Eva is first, then one anime and third is bakemonogatari, so what’s the second in Japan?

    Reply
    • something says:

      June 8, 2017 at 1:25 PM

      We generally don’t mix pre-2000 and post-2000 averages, since they were reported by different companies. Oricon only started around 2000. The market also changed a lot post-Eva with the real birth of late night anime and the rapid increase in the number of shows per year. That’s why I keep them in separate lists.

      But if we included everything, going by first release it’s Eva, then Bake, then it just continues down the 2000-Present list until the two lists start to overlap again in the 30k range.

      If you include re-releases, it’s still Eva, then Bake, but third would be 1st Gundam which has sold a ton in re-releases over the decades. Those are the three over 100k. Seed Destiny would be next at 93k. It’s possible someone was comparing 1st Gundam’s cumulative re-release total to Bake’s first-release number.

      Reply
11. Wyatt says:

    June 28, 2017 at 5:55 PM

    How did something like, Gunbuster or FLCL sell? (I know they’re OVA, just wondering if you have those figures

    Reply
    • something says:

      June 28, 2017 at 7:23 PM

      They both sold very well.

      FLCL averaged 24,050 originally + 640 DVD box + 5,746 BD box = 30,436
      Gunbuster/Top wo Nerae averaged 13,495 originally + 10,666 DVD box + 14,770 BD box = 38,931

      Reply
12. Tarot says:

    June 29, 2017 at 9:57 AM

    Yu Yu Hakusho was pretty popular back in the day. Do you think there’s any data for it?

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    • something says:

      June 29, 2017 at 10:28 AM

      The only thing I can find is on a copy of the old Livedoor urisure’s VHS/LD page.

      http://www.someanithing.com/Other%20Posts%20-%20Imported/historical_vhs_ld.htm

      If you search for 白書 TV全集 you’ll hit what appear to be VHS boxsets released in 1995, about a year after the show’s 1994 conclusion. I don’t know if it had any sort of release while it was airing. These boxsets sold between 11k and 20k.

      There was a BD box in 3 parts in 2009 or so that sold about 1k each.

      Reply
13. John says:

    July 12, 2017 at 8:32 PM

    Hi! What would be your estimates for the missing numbers of the following based on what is available?

    Cowboy Bebop DVD Vols 1 to 3
    Cardcaptor Sakura LD Vols 14 to 18

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • something says:

      July 12, 2017 at 10:29 PM

      No way to really tell, easiest assumption is “about what the other volumes sold”, so figure at least 6k for each of Bebop 1-3. Low end might be better than high end, because later DVDs increased (as more people make the switch I guess).

      For CCS, it looks like the LDs came out so late in LD’s lifetime that Oricon had straight up discontinued the charts, so presumably they wouldn’t have sold any more than v13.

      Reply
      • John says:

        August 22, 2017 at 7:41 PM

        Thank you very much for this! Do you think though that CCS Vol. 18 would have reached 20,000 “official”, recorded units if its LD numbers were around?

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        • something says:

          August 22, 2017 at 10:25 PM

          I guess it’s possible. Its LDs were still totaling over 6k in the couple volumes before that. I suppose it depends on how many switched to DVD – the DVD numbers for v17 and 18 rise enormously so I guess a lot of people switched at least by then. (It also depends a bit on exactly how you calculate the average.)

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14. ayumi says:

    August 22, 2017 at 9:13 PM

    Is there sales data for Ranma 1/2? It’s the show’s 30th anniversary and doesn’t seem to have any news of a reboot. I thought it was a pretty big show in the 80’s and 90’s along with Sailor Moon and Dragon ball. Would be nice to see that show resurrected.

    Reply
    • something says:

      August 22, 2017 at 10:45 PM

      Only data I see is 7389 VHS/5474 LD = 12,863 for Ranma 1/2: Kessen Tougenkyou! Hanayome wo Torimodose! (1992 movie) and Ranma 1/2: Nettou Uta Gassen (1990 OVA) which sold 7,000 v1 and 9,365 for v2. It’s possible the original TV series was only released in box-sets after the fact, or was only available as rental, or whatever. The market was different back then.

      Reply