Top 10 Anime in $$$

The 2008 market for character goods in Japan was estimated at $17.1 billion, and recently released statistics allow the top anime franchises to be ranked according to how much merchandise they sold, a very important metric as sales of anime goods can dwarf proceeds from anime sales.

The figures themselves, compiled by Amusement Journal, are based on extrapolations from a 1,000 participant consumer survey, rather than on actual sales (which would involve thousands of companies pooling data). 100 franchises of all kinds are ranked.

The percentages represent estimates of the scale of the franchise out of the entire market; the number in brackets is the ranking out of the overall top 100 franchises, most of which are not anime related.

1. Pokémon 7.46% (1)

2. Anpanman 7.28% (2)

3. Precure 3.24% (7)

4. Gundam 1.36% (11)

5. Dragonball 1.36% (17)

6. Doraemon 0.88% (18)

7. Naruto 0.70% (23)

8. Onegai My Melody 0.63% (26)

9. Haruhi 0.54% (28)

10. Evangelion 0.52% (30)

11. One Piece 0.48% (32)

12. Yu Gi Oh 0.47% (35)

13. Gintama 0.44% (38)

14. Hitman Reborn 0.39% (42)

15. Bleach 0.34% (46)

16. Code Geass 0.32% (53)

17. Conan 0.27% (63)

18. Tennis Ouji 0.22% (67)

19. Shugo Chara 0.17% (82)

20. Gegege Taro 0.16% (86)

In case you are wondering how, for example, Haruhi could end up beating One Piece despite One Piece being vastly more popular, the most probable explanation is simply that popularity (in terms of rating and readership) and the ability to sell merchandise based on a franchise are not always closely related.

Consider for example the number of Haruhi figures sold versus the number of Luffy figures sold…