Global Anime Sales Fall by 7.2% in 2007
The Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) reported that worldwide anime sales have fallen by 7.2%, from 258.7 billion yen in 2006 to 239.6 billion yen in 2007, marking its first decline since 2002.
Most of the blame for this decline was placed on the dwindling performance of television anime, which saw a 16% drop from 55.5 billion yen in 2006 to 47.5 billion yen 2007. Other sectors of the industry, such as video production, merchandising, overseas sales and licensing fees also saw a decline, in which was a bad year for anime overall.
Producers have started to limit the amount of new anime series being made in an effort to combat declining sales, instead focusing more on their popular key franchises.