Dragon Ball Trails Behind One Piece in Toei’s 2025 Reports

• Dragon Ball franchise earned ¥12.3 billion in Q2, trailing behind One Piece which made ¥13.3 billion.
• Dragon Ball Daima’s finale seemingly failed to boost Dragon Ball franchise sales.
• The shift shows that even legendary content sometimes needs recreation.

Toei Animation revealed in its April-September 2025 earnings cycle that One Piece has officially surpassed its legendary Dragon Ball franchise. The pirate anime had amassed a staggering amount of ¥13.3 billion, whereas Dragon Ball pulled in ¥12.3 billion for the second financial quarter.

The earnings cycle report further said that the anime featuring Super Saiyans held the top spot in the sector of “Domestic Licensing and Overseas Licensing”, whereas One Piece excelled in the "Overseas Film" segment, sealing the latter’s triumph.

How Did One Piece Surpass Dragon Ball?

Being the legendary anime franchise that Dragon Ball is, the shift has truly taken long-time fans by surprise. Given that Dragon Ball Daima wrapped up in February 2025, the results indicate that the franchise failed to maintain its commercial momentum until the end of Toei's earnings cycle. 

However, the popular anime One Piece has rapidly benefited from its present momentum, with merchandise, figures, anime streaming, and live actions boosting its growth. Notably, Toei says that the highest merchandising rights revenue of One Piece came from North America and Europe in the first financial quarter.

Similarly, in the gaming section, the new Dragon Ball home console game managed to perform well, leading to a rise in gaming rights revenue. Whereas, card games of the hit anime One Piece, supported Toei’s gaming revenue too.

These developments show that brands and media franchises now drive through global IP-licensing, creating an overall integrated media ecosystem. Nowadays, merely airing the show is not enough, cross-platform rollout and performance are also critical.

What Must Toei Animation Leverage On?

Toei Animation's growth mostly comes from overseas licensing and merch sales. The profit of the studio also fell significantly due to a reactionary decline in product sales for the movie The First Slam Dunk. However, the movie performed well in the same period in the previous year.

While Dragon Ball remains well-known, the 2025 results provide a reality check that popularity fades. The Dragon Ball series must leverage Daima's existing appeal to drive fresh growth through films, streaming, games, and licensing. Toei must value innovation and the worldwide reach their anime has, and should aim to adapt or recreate their legendary IPs.