One Piece overtakes Dragon Ball: Claims revenue crown with mind-boggling lead

For the past seven years, Dragon Ball has been Toei Animation's most profitable anime franchise.

Toei Animation's 2023 fiscal report reveals that One Piece has officially surpassed Dragon Ball as the company's highest-earning anime franchise.

One Piece has officially surpassed Dragon Ball as the company's highest-earning anime franchise.(X, formerly Twitter)

One Piece has officially dethroned Dragon Ball as the company's highest-grossing anime franchise. For the past seven years, Dragon Ball has been Toei Animation's most profitable anime franchise. However, the company's most recent fiscal report shows that One Piece has officially dethroned its popular competition.

One Piece surpasses Dragon Ball in revenue game

Recently, Toei Animation revealed its total revenue for the months of April 2023 through March 2024. One Piece made over 22.2 billion yen (about US$142.120,026), according to the report. However, Dragon Ball's seven-year winning record came to an end when the franchise only made about 19 billion yen, or about US$121,634,200. While Dragon Ball is undoubtedly still attracting viewers, this data also shows that One Piece is growing its already enormous fan base, which makes the latter series much more of a threat to both current and future competitors.

One Piece has experienced similar success with companies such as Bandai Nampo Entertainment, which manages the franchise's gaming section. According to the company's fiscal report for 2024, One Piece made over 112.1 billion yen (approximately US$721,893,733 at the time) in media sales, setting a new 100 billion yen milestone for the franchise. Dragon Ball, on the other hand, earned 140.6 billion yen, allowing it to defeat One Piece while losing its former top rank to Mobile Suit Gundam, which sold more than 145.7 billion yen in total. Prior to 2024, Dragon Ball was Bandai Namco Entertainment's most profitable franchise, with a six-year winning streak.

What do Dragon Ball fans have to say?

For Toei, One Piece has unquestionably triumphed. However, other fans believe that the data simply validates Dragon Ball's dominance in the anime fanbase. This is partly owing to the fact that Dragon Ball's last major anime series, Dragon Ball Super, was completed in 2018, whereas the One Piece anime continues to release new episodes on a weekly basis.

Despite this, Dragon Ball only lost by 3 billion yen, as many DB fans pointed out in the comments. "[One Piece] going up against a series that's completely inactive across the board and can only manage a 3 billion yen gap when it has everything going for it...once again, this is just more impressive for Dragon Ball," one user wrote.