Also: 14% drop in units sold, anime accounts for 23% of the market

Market research firm GfK Japan revealed last week that the total Blu-ray Disc and DVD home video market for the first half (January-June) of 2017 had reduced in both sales volume and revenue compared to the same period in 2016. The market moved 17.23 million units in the time period, which is a 14% decrease from last year. The market earned 82.6 billion yen (about US$755 million), a 10% decrease from last year. The figures do not count purchases by rental stores.

While sales of Blu-ray Disc units have gone down, they account for a higher proportion (51%) of the total. Since Blu-ray Discs have a higher average price, this change in proportion may account for some of the drop in sales volume.

Sales of Japanese anime now account for 23% of the market, down from 24% last year. In addition, the anime home video market alone has seen at least a 10% decrease from last year. Japanese anime is the second-largest category of home video sales after music, and it is the largest category of Blu-ray Disc sales, accounting for 33% of the total.

The chart below shows the breakdown of the total home video market by category for 2016 (left) and the first half of 2017 (right). The categories, in order from top to bottom, are 'other', hobby/instructional, music, sports, Japanese drama series, Western drama series, Asian drama series, Japanese animation, Western animation, Japanese films, and Western films.

Home video revenue in Japan has gradually declined since 2005, as seen in the chart below. From the past 12 years, sales hit their peak in 2004, with a revenue of 375.3 billion yen.

The Japan Video Software Association's (JVA) 12-month report on home video sales in Japan for 2016 also revealed a 6.1% decrease in net market worth compared to 2015, but a 0.7% increase in units sold. The anime video market in particular saw a 15.8% decrease from 2015 to 2016. The JVA's research includes sales from purchases by individuals, rental stores, and businesses, as well as bonus DVDs and Blu-ray Discs bundled with magazines or manga volumes.