On August 17, 2022, the Japan Video Software Association announced the value of video software sales (DVD/Blu-ray) in the first half of 2022 (January-June). The prolonged decline in record pack sales and the continued drop in consumption due to the COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to the difficult results.
Total video software sales in the first half of the year amounted to 55.82 billion yen, down 19.7% from a year earlier. Of total sales, DVDs accounted for 22.89 billion yen and Blu-ray 32.92 billion. By genre, “Music (Japanese)” and “Foreign Movies” remained stable, increasing 16.2% and 48.9% respectively.
However, there was a significant decline in anime Blu-ray/DVD sales, as “Japanese animation (for general audiences)” fell 56.4%. The total of all sales to individuals and rentals of Japanese animation (general) and Japanese animation (children) was 11.82 billion yen, which is a decrease of 54.6% from the previous year, less than half of the total from the previous year. The figure for the first half of 2021 was 26.07 billion yen.
The Japan Video Software Association (JVA) points to the reaction to the previous year’s blockbuster, Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen. While the drop was certainly larger in “overall” single sales, to which the film belongs, at 10.24 million yen (-56.4%), there were also significant declines in “kids” single sales, at 403 million yen. (-46.4%), and in the “general” rental points, with 904 million yen (-27.9%).
Furthermore, sales in the first half of 2020, the year before Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen boomed, amounted to 18.66 billion yen. In the first half of 2022, the figure was 36.6% lower in comparison. The shrinking of the anime video software market can be considered a long-term trend. Although the business model of anime production has already undergone a great change, the situation of the video software market, which is expected to amount to about 20-30 billion yen a year, will not stop affecting the industry. .
Fuente: Animation Business
© Animation Business Journal All rights reserved.