Character Sales: Japan, the World, and More

[Siegel Clyne]

WHAT FICTIONAL CHARACTERS REALLY SELL IN JAPAN AND THE WORLD

Top Earning Fictional Characters in 2002 According to Forbes.com

Rank | Character | Income
01. Winnie the Pooh & Friends $5 billion
02. Mickey Mouse & Friends $4.7 billion
03. Harry Potter $2.9 billion
04. Spider-Man $2.7 billion
05. Frodo Baggins (Lord of the Rings) $2.2 billion
06. Darth Vader (Star Wars) $1.3 billion
07. Sully (Monsters, Inc.) $993 million
08. Pikachu (Pokémon) $825 million
09. Spongebob SquarePants $800 million
10. Yugi Moto (Yu-Gi-Oh!) $725 million

For Reference
Barbie $3.6 billion
Disney Princess $1.3 billion

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Top Earning Fictional Characters in 2003 According to Forbes.com

Rank | Character | Income
01. Mickey Mouse & Friends $5.8 billion
02. Winnie the Pooh & Friends $5.6 billion
03. Frodo Baggins (Lord of the Rings) $2.9 billion
04. Harry Potter $2.8 billion
05. Nemo (Finding Nemo) $2 billion
06. Yugi Moto (Yu-Gi-Oh!) $1.6 billion
07. Spongebob SquarePants $1.5 billion
08. Spider-Man $1.3 billion
09. Wolverine (X-Men) $900 million
10. Pikachu (Pokémon) $825 million

To qualify to be on the Forbes.com. list, a character must be both "fictional" -- not based on a real person -- and a "character" in the sense of having made its debut in a narrative story -- book, a film or videogame. To calculate the earnings of the world's top fictional characters, Forbes.com added together worldwide toy/merchandise sales, videogame sales, publishing and box-office revenue, as well as DVD/VHS sales and rental revenue.

Pure toys, like Hello Kitty, who would have ranked third on our list with earnings of $4 billion last year, were excluded from our list.

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Character Goods Retail Market Scale in Japan

Character Retail Sales in Japan
(Character Databank Investigation)



The Asahi Shimbun, December 20, 2003 Edition

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1995 Character Market Scale in Japan - 1.75 trillion yen (> $14.1 billion)

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1996 Character Market Scale in Japan - 1.65 trillion yen (> $13.3 billion)

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1997 Character Market Scale in Japan - 1.85 trillion yen (> $14.9 billion)

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1998 Character Market Scale in Japan - 1.93 trillion yen (> $15.5 billion)

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1999 Character Market Scale in Japan - 2.07 trillion yen (> $16.7 billion)

Rank | Character | Share | Income
01. Hello Kitty 17.05% 353.9 billion yen (> $2.84 billion)
02. Pokemon 16.68% 345.3 billion yen (> $2.78 billion)
03. Mickey Mouse 6.33% 131 billion yen (> $1.05 billion)
04. Winnie the Pooh 4.59% 95.0 billion yen (> $766 million)
05. Doraemon 4.01% 83 billion yen (> $669 million)
06. Snoopy (Peanuts) 3.88% 80.3 billion yen (> $648 million)
07. Tare Panda 3.16% 65.4 billion yen (> $527 million)
08. Soreike! Anpanman 2.17% 44.9 billion yen (> $362 million)
09. Miffy 1.79% 37.0 billion yen (> $298 million)
10. Wallace & Gromit 1.50% 31.1 billion yen (> $251 million)

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2000 Character Market Scale in Japan - 1.68 trillion yen (> $13.5 billion)

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2001 Character Market Scale in Japan - 1.63 trillion yen (> $13.1 billion)

Rank | Character | Share | Income
01. Hello Kitty 11.09% 180.8 billion yen (> $1.45 billion)
02. Winnie the Pooh 8.53% 139 billion yen (> $1.12 billion)
03. Pokemon 7.59% 123.7 billion yen (> $998 million)
04. Hamtaro 6.51% 106.1 billion yen (> $856 million)
05. Mickey Mouse 5.25% 85.6 billion yen (> $690 million)
06. Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 4.22% 68.8 billion yen (> $555 million)
07. Miffy 3.55% 57.9 billion yen (> $467 million)
08. Soreike! Anpanman 3.29% 53.6 billion yen (> $432 million)
09. Snoopy 2.36% 38.5 billion yen (> $310 million)
10. Doraemon 2.26% 36.8 billion yen (> $297 million)

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2002 Character Market Scale in Japan - 1.60 trillion yen (> $12.9 billion)

Rank | Character | Share | Income
01. Winnie the Pooh 10.87% 173.9 billion yen (> $1.40 billion)
02. Hello Kitty 7.55% 120.8 billion yen (> $975 million)
03. Mickey Mouse 5.45% 87.2 billion yen (> $703 million)
04. Pokemon 4.71% 75.4 billion yen (> $608 million)
05. Soreike! Anpanman 4.05% 64.8 billion yen (> $523 million)
06. Hamtaro 3.12% 49.9 billion yen (> $402 million)
07. Snoopy (Peanuts) 3.08% 49.3 billion yen (> $397 million)
08. Gundam series 2.95% 47.2 billion yen (> $380 million)
09. Ninpuu Sentai Hurricanger 2.59% 41.4 billion yen (> $334 million)
10. Kamen Rider Ryuuki 2.47% 39.5 billion yen (> $318 million)

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2003 Character Market Scale in Japan - 1.70 trillion yen (> $13.7 billion)

Rank | Character | Share | Income
01. Winnie the Pooh 12.68% 215.6 billion yen (> $1.74 billion)
02. Hello Kitty 8.18% 139.1 billion yen (> $1.12 billion)
03. Mickey Mouse 6.88% 117 billion yen (> $944 million)
04. Pokemon 5.23% 88.9 billion yen (> $717 million)
05. Snoopy (Peanuts) 4.22% 71.7 billion yen (> $578 million)
06. Soreike! Anpanman 3.90% 66.3 billion yen (> $535 million)
07. Gundam series 2.79% 47.4 billion yen (> $382 million)
08. Hamtaro 2.41% 41.0 billion yen (> $330 million)
09. Miffy 2.34% 39.8 billion yen (> $321 million)
10. Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger 2.17% 36.9 billion yen (> $297 million)

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2004 Character Market Scale in Japan - 1.63 trillion yen (> $13.1 billion)

Rank | Character | Share | Income
01. Winnie the Pooh 10.06% 164 billion yen (> $1.32 billion)
02. Hello Kitty 8.81% 143.6 billion yen (> $1.16 billion)
03. Mickey Mouse 6.07% 98.9 billion yen (> $799 million)
04. Soreike! Anpanman 5.22% 85.1 billion yen (> $687 million)
05. Pokemon 4.88% 79.5 billion yen (> $642 million)
06. Snoopy (Peanuts) 2.72% 44.3 billion yen (> $358 million)
07. Gundam series 2.71% 44.2 billion yen (> $357 million)
08. Miffy 2.32% 37.8 billion yen (>$305 million)
09. Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger 2.18% 35.5 billion yen (> $286 million)
10. Ultraman series 1.84% 30 billion yen (> $242 million)
11. Doraemon 1.72% 28 billion yen (>$226 million)
12. Futari wa Pretty Cure 1.63% 26.6 billion yen (> $214 million)
13. Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends 1.54% 25.1 billion yen (> $202 million)
14. Disney Princess 1.14% 18.6 billion yen (> $150 million)
15. One Piece 1.12% 18.3 billion yen (>$147 million)
16. Kamen Rider series 1.00% 16.3 billion yen (> $131 million)
17. Cinnamoroll 0.97% 15.8 billion yen (> $127 million)
18. U*SA*HA*NA 0.93% 15.2 billion yen (> $122 million)
19. Dragon Ball series 0.92% 15 billion yen (> $121 million)
20. My Neighbor Totoro 0.91% 14.8 billion yen (> $119 million)

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2005 Character Market Scale in Japan - 1.61 trillion yen (> $13.0 billion)

Rank | Character | Share | Income
01. Winnie the Pooh 6.72% 108.2 billion yen (> $874 million)
02. Hello Kitty 6.09% 98.1 billion yen (> $792 million)
03. Mickey Mouse 5.06 81.5 billion yen (> $658 million)
04. Soreike! Anpanman 4.89% 78.7 billion yen (> $635 million)
05. Pokemon 4.05% 65.2 billion yen (> $526 million)
06. Futari wa Pretty Cure series 3.52% 56.7 billion yen (> $458 million)
07. Miffy 2.56% 41.2 billion yen (> $332 million)
08. Rilakkuma 2.51% 40.4 billion yen (> $326 million)
09. Mahou Sentai Magiranger 2.49% 40.1 billion yen (> $323 million)
10. Gundam series 2.43% 39.1 billion yen (> $315 million)

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Winnie the Pooh = Kuma no Pooh-san
Hamtaro = Tottoko Hamutarou
Pokémon = Pocket Monsters
Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends = Kikansha Thomas to Nakamatachi
My Neighbor Totoro = Tonari no Totoro
$1 = 1 USD = 1 US dollar
1 million = 1,000,000
1 billion = 1,000,000,000
1 trillion = 1,000,000,000,000

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[i]Japanese yen were converted into US dollars using current currency exchange rates.

For much of 1999, the Japanese yen was significantly stronger the US dollar back then than it is now. In regard to the 1999 character retail sales market in Japan, if currency exchange rates from back then are used to convert Japanese yen to US dollars, the character retail sales market in Japan probably would come out greater than $17 billion, with Sanrio's Hello Kitty and Nintendo's Pokemon each topping $3 billion in character retail sales in Japan.

[Siegel Clyne]

Character Sales: Japan, the World, and More

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On Tuesday, July 3, 2007, the official website of FujiSankei Business, a respected economics newspaper in Japan, ran an article on the results of the 2007 Bandai annual survey on the favorite characters of Japanese children.

Every year - in magazines, in newspapers and on the Internet - Bandai randomly surveys people (parents, guardians, etc.) on what the favorite characters of their children are.

Bandai's 2007 survey examined a total of 2,000 people: 1,000 people with boys, and 1,000 people with girls. Below are the results.

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2007 BANDAI ANNUAL SURVEY ON FAVORITE CHARACTERS OF CHILDREN IN JAPAN

Title: What is Your Child's Favorite Character?
Investigation Period: Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - Thursday, April 12, 2007

BOYS

Age Breakdown
0-2 years old 250 people
3-5 years old 250 people
6-8 years old 250 people
9-12 years old 250 people
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1,000 total people

GIRLS

Age Breakdown
0-2 years old 250 people
3-5 years old 250 people
6-8 years old 250 people
9-12 years old 250 people
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1,000 total people

Boys and Girls aged 0-12 years (2,000 people)
01. Soreike! Anpanman 420 people (21.0%)
02. Pocket Monsters [Pokemon] 247 people (12.3%)
03. Pretty Cure series 166 people (8.3%)
04. Doraemon 93 people (4.6%)
05. Tamagotchi 86 people (4.3%)
06. Dragon Ball 78 people (3.9%)
07. Kamen Rider series 76 people (3.8%)
08. Hello Kitty 75 people (3.7%)
09. Kirarin*Revolution 72 people (3.6%)
10. Keroro Gunsou [Sergeant Frog] 70 people (3.5%)

Boys aged 0-12 years (1,000 people)
01. Soreike! Anpanman 207 people (20.7%)
02. Pocket Monsters [Pokemon] 195 people (19.5%)
03. Dragon Ball 75 people (7.5%)
04. Kamen Rider series 72 people (7.2%)
05. Doraemon 69 people (6.9%)
06. Ultraman series 60 people (6.0%)
07. Super Sentai series 57 people (5.7%)
07. Kikansha Thomas [Thomas the Tank Engine] 57 people (5.7%)
09. Keroro Gunsou [Sergeant Frog] 53 people (5.3%)
10. Gundam series 47 people (4.7%)

Girls aged 0-12 years (1,000 people)
01. Soreike! Anpanman 213 people (21.3%)
02. Pretty Cure series 164 people (16.4%)
03. Tamagotchi 81 people (8.1%)
04. Hello Kitty 74 people (7.4%)
05. Kirarin*Revolution 71 people (7.1%)
06. Oshare Majo Love and Berry 55 people (5.5%)
07. Pocket Monsters [Pokemon] 52 people (5.2%)
08. Cinnamoroll 51 people (5.1%)
09. Kuma no Pooh-san [Winnie the Pooh] 42 people (4.2%)
10. Rilakkuma 39 people (3.9%)

According to Bandai's favorite character surveys...

Soreike! Anpanman has finished No. 1 among Japanese children six years in a row (since 2001). Anpanman has been loved by Japanese kids over many years.

Pocket Monsters [Pokemon] finished No. 2 among Japanese children the last three years.

Pretty Cure series finished no. 3 among Japanese children. Yes! Pretty Cure 5, the fourth Pretty Cure series broadcasting currently, is most popular among 3-8 year old girls.

Since 2005, the same characters have ranked as the top three favorite characters among Japanese children. Anpanman, Pocket Monsters [Pokemon], and Pretty Cure seem to be establishing themselves as the "Big 3" most popular characters among children in Japan.