I’ve avoided tracking long-running TV series aimed at kids due to their generally low sales and never-ending release schedules. The main focus of this site is on late night anime. But many shows blur the lines, in that they’ve got traction within the type of otaku audience most of us are a part of, and they rank consistently enough to be worth noticing.

I therefore have tracked a few in the past, but it was inconsistent. I added Precure because of Heartcatch initially, but stopped tracking after Dokidoki. I tracked Uchuu Kyoudai for a while before removing it. I’ve got only the first three arcs of Bleach because those are the ones that averaged 10k, but have never tracked One Piece or Naruto. I added Yumeiro Patissiere because I really liked it, but it ended up never ranking.

So what I’ve done is add another sheet to my sales spreadsheet where I collect a very abbreviated list of fields (name, volume, total sales, release date) for these shows, without the very detailed breakdown I do for other series. In order to be included here, the series should have started around 2000 or later, it should rank at least semi-regularly, and it should account for about four cour of material or more (or at least the very strong expectation that this will be the case).

Updated as of 2020-09-01

Long-running franchises: Averages

Franchise Series Average Volumes Total Units Aikatsu! Aikatsu! 1st Season 2,356 9 21,206 Aikatsu! Aikatsu! 2nd Season 1,291 9 11,621 Aikatsu! Aikatsu! Akari Generation 1,896 19 12,398 Aikatsu! Aikatsu Stars! 1,205 13 4,233 Aikatsu! Aikatsu Stars! Hoshi no Tsubasa 693 13 2,773 Aikatsu! Aikatsu Friends! 738 15 4,427 Aikatsu! Aikatsu on Parade 0 Black Clover Black Clover 236 5 472 Bleach Bleach 6,532 88 574,849 Cardfight!! Vanguard Cardfight!! Vanguard 653 41 26,791 Cardfight!! Vanguard Cardfight!! Vanguard G 503 12 6,040 Danbooru Senki Danbooru Senki 398 11 1,193 Danbooru Senki Danbooru Senki W 16 Danbooru Senki Danbooru Senki Wars 618 12 7,414 Diamond no Ace Diamond no Ace 2,745 13 56,588 Diamond no Ace Diamond no Ace Second Season 2,240 13 29,116 Diamond no Ace Diamond no Ace: Act II 9 4,866 Dragonball Dragonball Super 1,295 11 14,243 Fairy Tail Fairy Tail 567 44 24,368 Full Moon wo Sagashite Full Moon wo Sagashite 1,121 13 1,121 Gintama Gintama 14,640 51 746,640 Gintama Gintama' 12,575 13 163,475 Gintama Gintama' Enchousen 9,465 4 37,858 Gintama Gintama° 7,441 13 82,935 Hunter x Hunter Hunter x Hunter 4,491 28 116,754 Hunter x Hunter Hunter x Hunter (2011) 443 17 5,311 Katekyou Hitman Reborn! Katekyou Hitman Reborn! 3,886 50 194,308 Keroro Gunsou Keroro Gunsou 3,374 91 286,780 Meitantei Conan Meitantei Conan 373 273 40,286 Naruto Naruto 1,713 58 92,477 Naruto Naruto Shippuuden 1,457 118 171,948 Naruto Boruto: Naruto Next Generations 541 7 3,785 One Piece One Piece 2,165 253 547,806 Precure Futari wa Precure 1,260 13 16,381 Precure Futari wa Precure Max Heart 656 12 7,217 Precure Futari wa Precure Splash Star 434 13 2,605 Precure Yes! Precure 5 1,379 16 22,069 Precure Yes! Precure 5 GoGo! 888 16 13,321 Precure Fresh Precure! 1,223 16 19,563 Precure Heartcatch Precure! 1,910 16 30,554 Precure Suite Precure! 1,625 20 11,606 Precure Smile Precure! 3,092 20 23,040 Precure Dokidoki Precure! 1,469 20 12,101 Precure HappinessCharge Precure! 827 20 7,002 Precure Go! Princess Precure 1,617 20 10,190 Precure Mahoutsukai Precure! 1,237 20 8,095 Precure Kirakira Precure a la Mode 774 20 4,076 Precure Hugtto! Precure 1,178 20 6,921 Precure Star Twinkle Precure 896 15 4,148 Precure Healin' Good Precure 195 15 585 Pripara Pripara 527 45 14,764 Pripara Kiratto Pri-chan 266 6 1,064 Sket Dance Sket Dance 574 26 13,209 Tennis no Ouji-sama Tennis no Ouji-sama 6,255 73 450,342 Tennis no Ouji-sama Shin Tennis no Ouji-sama 7,180 12 86,162 Uchuu Kyoudai Uchuu Kyoudai 730 8 5,837 Yakitate!! Japan Yakitate!! Japan 891 18 10,686 Youkai Watch Youkai Watch 12,116 8 96,930 Yumeiro Patissiere Yumeiro Patissiere 467 13 5,604 Yumeiro Patissiere Yumeiro Patissiere SP Professional 287 4 574

Long-running franchises: Per-volume