Anime home video market follows general home video market trend

The Japan Video Software Association (JVA) released its 12-month statistical report on March 14 on video software sales in Japan from January to December 2016. The report stated that anime DVD and Blu-ray Disc sales, including rentals, amounted to 54.420 billion yen (about US$483.6 million), a 15.8% decrease from last year.

Sales and rentals of both anime and foreign animation combined amounted to 61.885 billion yen (about US$550 million), a 15% decrease from last year. The amount represents 31.9% of the entire DVD and Blu-ray Disc sales market, and 26.1% of the rental market.

Excluding rentals, home video sales of anime for general audiences amounted to 41.849 billion yen (about US$371 million), a 14.7% decrease from last year's figure. The sales were 27.3% of the overall home video sales market. Blu-ray Disc sales of anime for general audiences totaled 32.043 billion yen (US$284.8 million), a 17.6% decrease from last year. The anime for general audiences Blu-ray Disc sales made up 38.3% of Blu-ray Disc sales in general, the largest portion of any category. DVD sales in the category totaled 9.806 billion (US$87.1 million), down 3.8% from 2015. Sales in the category made up 14.1% of the overall DVD market.

Excluding rentals, home video sales of anime for children totaled 2.176 billion yen (US$19.3 million), which is a 41% decrease from 2015. Home video sales of anime for children made up 1.4% of the overall market.

The average price for individual DVDs in 2016 was 3,385 yen (about US$29), which increased by 8.4% from last year. The average price for individual Blu-ray Discs was 5,137 yen (about US$45), a 4.1% increase from last year.

The anime home video market's sales decline follows the trend for the larger general market, which saw a 6.1% decrease in sales (including rentals) with a total amount of 204.727 billion yen (about US$1.819 billion) for 2016.

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.