How popular is Dragon Ball in comparison to DBZ?

[MasenkoHA]

Something I used to always hear that in Japan, Japanese fans tend to prefer the original Dragon Ball over Z in contrast with U.S.

But is that really the case?

GT started out trying to recapture the spirit of early Dragon Ball IN SPACE. Before transforming into Dragon Ball Z: The new Adventures.

Path to Power, the 10th anniversary Dragon Ball movie in GT drag ended up having Kid Goku go Not!Super Saiyan

Kai pretty much deems the Dragon Ball portion unimportant and reduces it to a recap

[JohnnyCashKami]

It seems that DB is the third least popular series in Western countries, with DBZ and DBGT being more widely known and loved. Yes, a lot here hate GT but that doesn't reflect on the real world fans.

[sintzu]

Funimation skipped it after 13 episodes and went to Z.

A good number of fans either watch it after Z or not at all (at least in America).

When the dragon boxes and their singles released they started with Z.

When the manga's full color edition released they started with Z.

Kai reduced it to a 2 minute recap.

It gets little to no video game representation.

Companies act as if it doesn't exist most of the time.

That's how popular it is... . Sooooooo much would've been different if Toei didn't rename the anime and instead started the Saiyan arc as DB's 154th episode.

[Saikyo no Senshi]

In Japan, it had better average ratings than both Z and GT. So, yeah it was super popular.

This modern era has definitely marketed everything on the Z portion and forward cause of more marketing potential (maybe?) cause the early series didn't have transformations and all that shit. It is no surprise it is not nearly as visible now.

[KBABZ]

OG Dragon Ball is more popular in Japan compared to the West because DB was popular there before DBZ was mega-popular (compared to the West where Z was mega-popular and DB just flew under the radar). But it still pales in comparison to Z in Japan, same as always.

[ricky84]

Something I used to always hear that in Japan, Japanese fans tend to prefer the original Dragon Ball over Z in contrast with U.S.

But is that really the case?

That's just a myth Z haters made up, like the myth about characters such Broly & Vegeta only being popular in the West (when in reality they are way more popular in Japan).

Z based merchandise and the Z portions of the original manga greatly outsold Early DB stuff by a massive degree.

The truth is that all over the world, Z is the most popular part of the franchise with no exceptions.