Thanks to games like Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission X, the Dragon Ball IP was the top earning franchise for Bandai Namco during its 2nd Quarter of 2017. Coming in second was the Gundam franchise, which saw the PS4 game, Gundam Versus released in Japan during this window. As for the entire fiscal year, Bandai is predictin that Dragon Ball will bring in ¥75.7 billion yen ($657 million USD) in revenue for the company, while Gundam will earn another ¥70.9 billion yen ($630 million USD) . Bandai's Q2 ran from April 4 to September 30.
Of note, Toei Animation also released some
financial information for its investors recently and also attributed the Dragon Ball franchise's popularity for its record-breaking earnings. Manga publisher Shueisha (they own Weekly Shonen Jump) owns the rights to the Dragon Ball franchise so both Toei (anime) and Bandai (video games) pay licensing fees for the use of the Dragon Ball brand.
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Dragon Ball: ¥43.1 billion yen ($380 million USD)
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Mobile Suit Gundam: ¥32.7 billion yen ($290 million USD)
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One Piece: ¥14.4 billion yen ($130 million USD)
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Super Sentai/Power Rangers: ¥10.2 billion yen ($90 million USD)
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Kamen Rider: ¥9.8 billion yenv($90 million USD)
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Naruto: ¥5.4 billion yen ($50 million USD)
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Anpanman: ¥4.7 billion yen ($40 million USD)
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Precure: ¥3.8 billion yen ($30 million USD)
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Ultraman: ¥3.1 billion yen ($30 million USD)
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Yo-kai Watch: ¥2.1 billion yen ($20 million USD)