{"id":43799,"date":"2025-02-05T18:39:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T09:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=43799"},"modified":"2025-02-05T18:39:06","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T09:39:06","slug":"dragon-ball-is-bandai-namco-best-selling-ip-this-year-with-sales-almost-doubling-thanks-to-dragon-ball-sparking-zeros-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dragon-ball-is-bandai-namco-best-selling-ip-this-year-with-sales-almost-doubling-thanks-to-dragon-ball-sparking-zeros-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragon Ball is Bandai Namco\u2019s best-selling IP this year, with sales almost doubling thanks to Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO\u2019s success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Bandai Namco Holdings <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bandainamco.co.jp\/files\/00_2_E_2025E5B9B43E69C88E69C9FE7ACACEFBC93E59B9BE5.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">revealed<\/a> today that Dragon Ball has been their top selling IP over the last nine months (April 1 to December 31, 2024), breaking previous quarterly records for the franchise.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1274\" height=\"713\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1274px) 100vw, 1274px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250205-43799-004.jpg\" alt=\"Dragon Ball Sparking Zero\" class=\"wp-image-43806\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250205-43799-004.jpg 1274w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250205-43799-004-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250205-43799-004-768x430.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In a truly Super Saiyan-worthy feat, Dragon Ball-related sales totaled 143.3 billion yen for the 9-month period, which is a 44.3% increase compared to the same period last year. Moreover, the third quarter alone (October through December 2024) accounted for 67.7 billion yen in sales. This was of course, greatly influenced by the October 8 release of Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO, which has sold over 5 million copies worldwide. Other DB-related income also contributed, including revenue from Dragon Ball smartphone games (such as Dragon Ball Legends), trading cards and figures.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"508\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250205-43799-002.jpg\" alt=\"Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Freedom\" class=\"wp-image-43801\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250205-43799-002.jpg 900w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250205-43799-002-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250205-43799-002-768x433.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>After Dragon Ball, Bandai Namco\u2019s best-selling IP were Mobile Suit Gundam (at 115.7 billion yen) and One Piece (at 108.9 billion yen). Mobile Suit Gundam\u2019s sales grew by 6.8% during the period, influenced by the global box office performance of the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM movie, as well as the global distribution of Gundam anime series, and the enduring popularity of Gundam plastic models and figures. Bandai Namco\u2019s decision to build a <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/nongaming-news\/bandai-namco-aims-to-resolve-gundam-model-scarcity-issues-with-a-whole-new-factory\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">new factory<\/a> dedicated to producing Gundam figures and plastic model kits indicates just how sought-after they are.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1277\" height=\"659\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1277px) 100vw, 1277px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250205-43799-003.webp\" alt=\"One Piece Luffy\" class=\"wp-image-43802\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250205-43799-003.webp 1277w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250205-43799-003-380x196.webp 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250205-43799-003-768x396.webp 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>One Piece sales grew 29.1% year-on-year to 108.9 billion yen. Again, strong sales of IP related goods in the Toys and Hobby sector (such as figures and trading cards), as well as smartphone game earnings contributed to this increase.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s worth noting that Dragon Ball, Mobile Suit Gundam and One Piece are all major IPs that have been around for decades and have built up multi-generational fanbases both at home and abroad. Going forward, <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/bandai-namco-announces-reshuffling-of-leadership-in-pursuit-of-new-ip-driven-mid-term-plan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bandai Namco Holdings\u2019 mid-term strategy <\/a>will focus on strong, sustainable growth of their IPs.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bandai Namco Holdings revealed the three major IPs that were their top best-selling franchises for April through December 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":43800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[261,17],"class_list":["post-43799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-financial-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Dragon Ball is Bandai Namco\u2019s best-selling IP this year, with sales almost doubling thanks to Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO\u2019s success - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bandai Namco Holdings revealed the three major IPs that were their top best-selling franchises for April through December 2024.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dragon-ball-is-bandai-namco-best-selling-ip-this-year-with-sales-almost-doubling-thanks-to-dragon-ball-sparking-zeros-success\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dragon Ball is Bandai Namco\u2019s best-selling IP this year, with sales almost doubling thanks to Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO\u2019s success - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bandai Namco Holdings revealed the three major IPs that were their top best-selling franchises for April through December 2024.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dragon-ball-is-bandai-namco-best-selling-ip-this-year-with-sales-almost-doubling-thanks-to-dragon-ball-sparking-zeros-success\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-05T09:39:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-05T09:39:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250205-43799-001.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Verity Townsend\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Verity Townsend\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dragon Ball is Bandai Namco\u2019s best-selling IP this year, with sales almost doubling thanks to Dragon Ball Sparking! 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She has a soft spot for old-school Sierra adventure games and Final Fantasy VIII (yes, 8!). Can often be found hunting down weird forgotten games and finding out everything about them. Frequently muses about characters and lines from Metal Gear Solid and Disco Elysium. 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