Summary
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom DVD and Blu-ray versions sold around 130,000 copies in Japan.
- Despite declining home video sales, Seed Freedom’s success may be attributed to limited streaming availability.
- Gundam continues to thrive with upcoming releases like GQuuuuuuX and production of Gundam Hathaway Part 2.
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom DVD and Blu-ray versions are making great sales numbers in Japan! Mobile Suit Gundam has seemingly gained momentum in Japan and internationally since Gundam: The Witch from Mercury (G-Witch) – while the franchise is well-established in Japan, G-Witch was able to attract new audiences to the series.
The Gundam Seed movie, which debuted in Japan last year, was a long-awaited one – it was originally announced in 2006 –, and quickly became the highest-grossing Gundam movie, grossing over 36 million dollars.
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The Blu-ray and DVD editions were released on December 25, 2024, in Japan, and they sold, considering all versions, around 117,171 copies in their first week, according to Oricon estimates. A limited Blu-ray version alone sold 68,275 copies in that week. Adding all the numbers from the weekly Oricon rankings since then, the movie has sold around 130,000 copies in home-video editions so far.
A decade ago, maybe these numbers wouldn’t be as impressive as they are today. However, due to the rise of streaming services, home-video sales have been declining steadily, and they are not as important as they used to be. Nowadays, licensing contracts with streaming services are a major source of revenue for production companies (and, of course, licensing deals to produce merchandise are still important).
For example, Dandadan, which could be easily considered the biggest anime hit in the 2024 Fall Season, reportedly sold only 2,176 copies in its first week:
Another example is Chainsaw Man: while the anime took over the internet while airing, it sold around 1,700 DVD/BD copies in its first week, a few years ago. Another anime, that aired in the same period, made impressive numbers though, but still not even as near as Gundam Seed Freedom: back then, Bocchi the Rock sold over 16,000 copies in its first week.
What Could Explain Gundam Seed Freedom Sales?
Although home video sales are not as important as they used to be, there are still some series that make outstanding numbers – Demon Slayer is one example. So, the first thing that could explain Seed Freedom‘s number is how successful it was at the Japanese box office.
Another key reason is the likely perception that the movie will not be available on streaming services soon – so people want to make sure they will have proper access to it. With the limited-edition Blu-ray representing over 50% of the sales, fans also wanted to have access to the special content.
Gundam Seed Freedom is not available to stream in the US. However, the Gundam Seed original TV series is on Crunchyroll.
More Good Gundam News
Gundam fans will soon be able to watch the latest entry in the franchise – Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX (likely to debut in April). They might also wait for more news about Gundam Hathaway Part 2 (which is currently in production) and maybe also about that live-action movie that keeps getting re-announced once in a while.
Source: Minkara, Oricon via Wayback Machine (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8)