One Piece Finally Beats Dragon Ball in Earnings

Over the past seven years, "Dragon Ball" has been the most profitable anime franchise for Toei Animation. However, the company's most recent fiscal report reveals that "One Piece" has dethroned its iconic competitor. A Twitter user recently shared Toei Animation's total earnings from April 2023 to March 2024. According to the report, "One Piece" grossed more than 22.2 billion yen. On the other hand, "Dragon Ball" only earned around 19 billion yen, marking the end of the franchise's seven-year winning streak.

While "Dragon Ball" continues to maintain a significant audience, this data confirms that "One Piece" continues to expand its already huge fan base, becoming an even more formidable opponent for both current and future competitors. "One Piece" has also achieved notable success with companies such as Bandai Namco Entertainment, which oversees the franchise's video game division.

According to the company's 2024 fiscal report, "One Piece" earned more than 112.1 billion yen in media sales, setting a new milestone of 100 billion yen for the series. In contrast, Dragon Ball earned 140.6 billion yen, allowing it to beat "One Piece" while losing its No. 1 spot to "Mobile Suit Gundam," which grossed more than 145.7 billion yen in total sales. Prior to 2024, "Dragon Ball" had maintained a six-year winning streak as Bandai Namco Entertainment's most lucrative franchise.

For Toei, there's no doubt that "One Piece" has come out on top. However, some fans feel that the report only reinforces the supremacy of "Dragon Ball" within the anime fandom. This is mainly due to the fact that the franchise's most recent major anime series, "Dragon Ball Super," concluded in 2018, while the "One Piece" anime continues to release new episodes weekly.

Despite this, "Dragon Ball" only lost by a margin of 3 billion yen, a fact that many fans pointed out in the comments section. "For One Piece to compete against a series that is completely dormant and only make a difference of 3 billion yen when it has everything going for it... once again this is more impressive for Dragon Ball," one user wrote.

It is notable that there is some controversy within the Toei Animation community regarding how the company treats its two titans. Some fans have argued that Toei invests most of its international marketing efforts in "One Piece" while devoting a comparatively meager amount of publicity to "Dragon Ball," particularly in the West. Online fans have pointed this out in relation to Toei's upcoming anime series "Dragon Ball Daima," which has only received a few promotional videos to keep the community on the edge of their seats until its premiere in Fall-2024 (October-December).

Source: Schaewn Frost en Twitter