Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury led to record-breaking sales for Bandai Namco in 2023
Bandai Namco Holdings announced their midterm financial results on November 7. According to the report, sales related to the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise have increased by 16% compared to last year, amounting to 72.6 billion yen (approx. $490 million), a new record for the IP (Gamebiz).
The midterm sales announcement by Bandai Namco Holdings reveals sales for the first half of the current fiscal year (from April 2023 to October 2023) for individual IPs. According to the report, the Mobile Suit Gundam IP as a whole has had a 16% increase in sales, amounting to a total of about $490 million.
According to Gamebiz, Bandai Namco attributes the rise in the popularity of their products and services to the success of the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. They also mention the steady success of Gundam model kits, Gundam-related licensing and the mobile game Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs. 2 OverBoost.
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is the fifteenth installment of the long-running Gundam anime series that started airing in 2022, after a full seven-year break in the series. The anime was well received worldwide, praised by many for bringing freshness into the Gundam series with themes and approaches relevant today. Unsurprisingly, it seems that the anime has made an unprecedented contribution to the Mobile Suit Gundam IP and Bandai Namco’s profits as a whole.
The Witch from Mercury launched with a much-anticipated Prologue episode in July of 2022, and looking at Bandai Namco’s Gundam-related sales over the years, a clear spike can be seen starting from the third quarter of 2022 and continuing well into the current year.
Though the series went through a rough patch due to controversy related to LGBT representation both in Japan and worldwide, it seems to have been a great success commercially nonetheless, reviving the popularity of the Gundam IP among old fans and brining in new audiences.
