A new report for Bandai Namco’s fiscal year 2024 (April 1, 2023 to March 23, 2024) shows that One Piece is slowly catching up to Dragon Ball in terms of profits as an IP.
According to a post on X (formerly Twitter) by user Ethan Law, Mobile Suit Granada ranks first as the most profitable Bandai Namco IP this fiscal period, with Dragon Ball coming in at number one two and One Piece follows in third place. These three businesses have become a major source of profit for Bandai Namco recently.
Law claims below the post that Dragon Ball’s profits may have stagnated since 2018’s hugely successful Dragon Ball Super: Broly, which 2022’s Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero cannot replicate Okay. “It’s interesting that DB is quite stable after Broly, while other IP grows. Make no mistake, DB is making a lot of money, but the huge gap between Broly and SH, followed by SH, doesn’t really excite fans.” way that damaged momentum,” Law said. “It will be interesting to see if Daima can regain momentum, or if the controversy over switching the cast comes to fruition?[o] children and if it wasn’t Super 2 it would have the same effect as SH.”
Meanwhile, One Piece seems to have taken off over the past few years, with 2022’s One Piece Film: Red grossing around $246 million worldwide, making it the sixth highest-grossing anime film of all time. Additionally, Netflix’s recently released live-action adaptation of One Piece was both a huge critical and commercial success, praised for breaking the ‘curse’ of live-action anime. While this momentum isn’t big enough to surpass Dragon Ball and especially Mobile Suit GTA in the financial rankings, it does help explain why the series has narrowed the gap over time.
Dragon Ball fans shouldn’t be too discouraged, as the newly announced Dragon Ball Daima series will offer all-new classic content. However, audiences will have to wait until November 2024 to experience this 26-episode spin-off set between the end of Dragon Ball Z and the beginning of Dragon Ball Super.
Source: X (formerly Twitter)