Dragon Ball, Gundam, and One Piece are among the top-selling IPs for Bandai Namco in the latest quarter. Find out how well various IPs performed in the latest financial results for the first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020.
First, take a look at the net sales by business segment. The “Network Entertainment” segment is the one that includes video games. As you can see, it brings the most sales with 328 billion yen in the fiscal year of 2020. The “Toys and Hobby” segment was the second highest with over 253 billion yen in sales. In the first quarter of FY2021, the Network Entertainment segment reached 77.85 billion yen, that’s 9.3% over the same period of the previous fiscal year. The full-year forecast for Network Entertainment is 305 billion yen, about 7% less than the full-year result for the segment last year.
Net Sales and Operating Profit by Region
As shown in the above tables, the net sales and operating profit by region mostly come from Japan. However, the tables also show that the first-quarter performance in Japan has dropped compared to the same period last year. The Americas, Europe, and Asia all improved in the first quarter, with an especially notable performance in Europe for operating profit.
Sales of IPs
The above is a look at how various IPs of Bandai Namco performed in sales. Dragon Ball continues to dominate with 27.1 billion yen in sales for the first quarter of FY2021. Mobile Suit Gundam followed with 20.7 billion yen, and One Piece with 10.5 billion yen. The Naruto series continues to sell with 5.4 billion yen to make it the #4 best-selling IP. Not far behind is Kamen Rider with 5.3 billion yen in the first quarter. Bandai Namco expects Kamen Rider to be on the same level as One Piece with a forecast of 32 billion yen in sales by the end of the fiscal year.
However, when it comes to the “Toys and Business” segment of IPs, it is a different story. Here, we have Mobile Suit Gundam on top with 9.9 billion yen in sales for the first quarter. The Kamen Rider franchise continues to do well in the Toys and Hobby Business with 4.6 billion yen in sales to be the #2 best-seller in the first quarter. Dragon Ball is by far the top when it comes to video games, but here it is #3 with 3 billion yen in sales during the first quarter of FY2021.
Network Entertainment Business
The “Home Video Game” part of the Network Entertainment Business had 25 billion yen in sales for the first quarter of FY2021. That’s close to a 40% increase of 7.1 billion yen compared to the first quarter of the previous fiscal year which had 17.9 billion yen in sales. As we’ve seen with several other companies during the first quarter of FY2021, most of the spike here can be attributed to the global pandemic.
Lastly, the above tables break down the Home Video Game section in different regions. When it comes to gaming, it shows that the Americas and Europe are getting better results with fewer new titles compared to Japan in the first quarter of FY2021.
