Anime accounts for 27% of market overall, 36% of BD sales

Market research firm GfK Japan revealed on Tuesday that the total Blu-ray Disc and DVD home video market for 2017 in Japan reduced in both sales volume and revenue compared to 2016. The market moved 35.25 million units in 2017, a 10% decrease from the previous year. The market earned 165.7 billion yen (about US$1.55 billion), an 8% decrease from 2016.

The Blu-ray Disc market also reduced in both sales volume and revenue by 2% compared to the previous year. However, Blu-ray Discs accounted for 54% of the home video market, a 3% increase from 2016. Blu-ray Discs' higher average price and larger proportion of the market may account for some of the drop in Japan's home video market overall.

Sales of Japanese anime accounted for 27% of the market, a 3% increase from 2016. Makoto Shinkai 's your name. anime film was the best-selling home video release in Japan in 2017, which may account for part of the increase. Japanese anime accounted for 36% of Blu-ray Disc sales in the home video market, a 2% increase from the previous year, making it the largest category of Blu-ray Disc sales in 2017. In the Japanese anime market, Blu-ray Disc sales far exceed DVD sales with a three-to-one sales revenue ratio.

The chart below shows the breakdown of the total home video market by category for 2016 (left) and 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.

GfK Japan previously reported in September 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 2016. The market earned 82.6 billion yen (about US$755 million), a 10% decrease from last year. In the first half of 2017, Japanese anime accounted for 23% of the market. According to Japan Video Software Association (JVA), Japanese anime home video sales fell 16.6% during the same period.

Source: Anime! Anime! Biz