Bandai Namco Holdings has posted a ¥25 billion (approximately $247 million) profit for the fiscal 2014 year.
Dragon Ball has rebounded enough to warrant another inclusion on the top-performing list of franchises for the fiscal year, jumping up to ¥11.4 billion in net sales over last fiscal year’s ¥8.9 billion. The last five or so years seem to be following a rather steady cycle.
| Year | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
| Net Sales | ¥17.8 bil. | ¥15.8 bil. | ¥12.5 bil. | ¥8.3 bil. | ¥11.8 bil. | ¥8.9 bil. | ¥11.4 bil. |
The company is forecasting total net sales of ¥12.3 billion for the Dragon Ball franchise in fiscal 2015.
As for individual video games, the company shipped 620,000 copies of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z worldwide, behind 700,000 copies of God Eater 2 and 1.2 million copies of Dark Souls II.
In terms of general toys and hobby merchandise (non-video games), the franchise jumped from ¥4.8 billion last fiscal year to ¥6.4 billion this year. Namco-Bandai is forecasting a slight drop to ¥5.5 billion for next year.
The easy analysis — without necessarily confusing correlation with causation — was watching merchandise sales for the franchise start to tank when Dragon Ball Kai was on TV in Japan, and watching sales immediately climb back up when the show went on hiatus. It will be interesting to see if a similar trend happens now that the “refreshed” show is back on TV for the Majin Boo arc, or if the continued success of Dragon Ball Heroes and such keep it steady.
Thanks to Super Saiyan Prime for the reminder!