Over the last few years, anime has grown to be a captivating medium that appeals to people all over the world and crosses cultural boundaries with shows like Demon Slayer, Pokémon, Dragon Ball, and more. With its billion-dollar industry emerging from modest beginnings, anime has emerged as Japan’s most significant export of culture. While there are many ways to assess a franchise’s performance, financial revenue, and commercial success are perhaps the most obvious.
With the anime genre becoming more and more integrated into the mainstream worldwide, it is now a respectable source of income, with several well-known franchises leading the way in terms of earnings. Some anime series have made enormous profits, earning billions of dollars in home entertainment, video games, box office receipts, merchandise, and other revenue streams.
Currently, the highest-grossing anime franchise of all time is Pokémon, one of the first anime series that became an international success. The series has spread a lot over almost 30 years, with its hand in TV series, movies, video games, merchandise, and much more. The real worth of Pokémon is estimated to be more than $100 Billion.
Pokémon is the Highest Grossing Anime Franchise of All Time
Pokémon is a Japanese media franchise that includes trading card games, animated shows, movies, video games, and other related media. The franchise is set in a shared universe where a wide range of species with unique abilities known as Pokémon live side by side with humans.
The franchise began as two role-playing games that Game Freak created based on an original idea by Satoshi Tajiri, the company’s founder. Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures are the three companies that jointly own Pokémon. To administer the Pokémon property in Asia, the three companies founded The Pokémon Company (TPC) in 1998.
On the other hand, Shogakukan shares ownership of the Pokémon anime series and movies. Pokémon is currently the highest-grossing anime franchise of all time thanks to the series’ rapid growth over the years. Although Pokémon’s total worth is estimated to be more than $100 billion, the Pokémon Company stopped disclosing this information in 2019.
The Real Worth of the Pokémon Franchise
Pokémon swiftly succeeded in broadening its reach across the globe, whereas many media franchises mainly focus on their home markets or particular geographic areas. A solid basis for the title’s global expansion was established by its popularity in Japan, the country of origin.
Pokémon’s primary source of income was licensed merchandising, despite having a very successful anime, trading card game, and video game lineup. Sales of licensed products, like toys and books, regularly surpass the combined sales of Pokémon video games, manga, cards, and anime.
The series’ estimated net worth in 2019 was $71 billion; however, by 2022, it is said to have increased to over $100 billion. Pokémon has been at the top of the list for quite some time, and looking at the consecutive increase in sales every year, it is bound to stay at the top in the future too.
