Translation: 2000-2010 best-selling TV anime
Note: I frequently encounter people complaining that cheap moe/fanservice anime are being made because they sell better than “serious” anime. However, these shows typically sell extremely poorly – I hope this list will help improve your internet arguments. I’ve added a somewhat-accurate list of genres/original source material.
Source: Anime sales thread material repository on livedoor bbs, presumably from 2ch originally.
These numbers are per-volume averages, with each DVD in a box set being counted as an individual volume. (*) indicates series still being released when the list was made in 2010/05.
List of 2000-2010 TV anime DVD/BDs with 10,000+ sales
| Sales | Genre | Series |
| 170,479 | Comedy | The World of Golden Eggs |
| 79,204 | Mecha SF | Gundam SEED Destiny |
| 76,760 | Light Novel | Bakemonogatari (*) |
| 70,349 | Mecha SF | Gundam SEED |
| 52,900 | Shounen | Full Metal Alchemist |
| 50,552 | Shounen | Code Geass |
| 46,147 | Mecha SF | Macross Frontier |
| 42,822 | 4koma Comedy | K-ON! |
| 42,690 | Shounen | Code Geass R2 |
| 41,038 | Light Novel SF | The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya |
| 39,208 | SF | Gundam 00 |
| 34,601 | SF | Gundam 00 S2 |
| 29,890 | Seinen | Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. 2nd Gig |
| 29,768 | Visual Novel | Clannad |
| 29,509 | Sports | Initial D Fourth Stage |
| 29,146 | 4koma Comedy | Lucky Star |
| 27,377 | Seinen | Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex |
| 26,910 | 4koma Comedy | Azumanga Daiou |
| 26,047 | Visual Novel Fantasy | Fate/stay night |
| 25,637 | Harem Romance | Love Hina |
| 24,346 | Visual Novel | AIR |
| 24,253 | SF+Moe | A Certain Scientific Railgun (*) |
| 22,829 | Light Novel | Dulalala! (*) |
| 22,591 | Magical Girl SF | Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS |
| 21,831 | 4koma Comedy | Working!! (*) |
| 20,450 | Visual Novel | Kanon (2006) |
| 20,342 | Healing | Aria The Origination |
| 20,052 | Shounen SF | Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann |
| 19,819 | Visual Novel | Clannad After Story |
| 19,297 | Sports | Ookiku Furikabutte |
| 18,683 | Fighting | Bleach (1-20) |
| 18,573 | Fighting | Bleach (42-63) |
| 18,556 | Light Novel SF | The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya S2 |
| 18,535 | ??? | Mononoke |
| 17,888 | Sports | Initial D Second Stage |
| 17,864 | Healing | Aria The Animation |
| 17,553 | Comedy | Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu |
| 17,481 | Fighting | Bleach (21-41) |
| 16,458 | Harem Comedy | Mahou Sensei Negima! |
| 16,262 | ??? | Onegai Teacher |
| 16,166 | ??? | Onegai Twins |
| 16,079 | SF | Darker than Black S1 |
| 15,983 | Healing | Aria The Natural |
| 15,448 | Comedy | Gintama S1 |
| 15,284 | Comedy | Gintama S2 |
| 15,246 | Comedy | Gintama S3 |
| 15,021 | Shounen | Death Note |
| 14,216 | Visual Novel Fantasy | Shingetsutan Tsukihime |
| 14,125 | Fanservice Comedy | Mahoromatic S1 |
| 13,920 | Neo-Shounen | Kuroshitsuji |
| 13,789 | Fanservice | Strike Witches S1 |
| 13,723 | Shounen | Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood (*) |
| 13,360 | Visual Novel | D.C. ~Da Capo~ |
| 13,233 | ??? | Hand Maid May |
| 12,971 | ??? | Mai-HiME |
| 12,937 | Comedy | Gintama S4 |
| 12,673 | SF | Darker than Black S2 (*) |
| 12,290 | ??? | Ai yori Aoshi |
| 12,126 | Light Novel | A Certain Magical Index S1 |
| 12,094 | ??? | Infinite Ryvius |
| 11,932 | Shoujo | Fruits Basket |
| 11,920 | Fighting | Scryed |
| 11,800 | Novel SF | Banner of the Stars |
| 11,712 | SF | Eureka Seven |
| 11,521 | Fanservice Comedy | Mahoromatic S2 |
| 11,440 | ??? | Read or Die TV |
| 11,265 | ??? | Mai-Otome |
| 11,251 | Magical Girl | Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s |
| 11,244 | Comedy | Minami-ke S1 |
| 11,243 | ??? | Rozen Maiden Träumend |
| 11,039 | ??? | Honey & Clover |
| 10,880 | Harem Comedy | Kannagi |
| 10,620 | Light Novel | Shakugan no Shana S1 |
| 10,612 | Light Novel Drama | Toradora |
| 10,315 | ??? | Natsume’s Book of Friends S2 |
| 10,236 | ??? | Natsume’s Book of Friends |
| 10,219 | Comedy | Pani Poni Dash! |
| 10,049 | Seinen | Mushi-shi |
| 10,046 | ??? | Library War |
Who says SHAFT needs industry awards?
November 23rd, 2010 at 4:40 am
Wait, are you trying to say K-On, Lucky Star, Clannad, Bakemonogatari, Mahou Sensei Negima, Haruhi, Love Hina, Railgun, GSD, Mahoromatic etc etc are not cheap and/or moe and/or fanservice? Because they are, bro.
Also the numbers aren’t v accurate. They’re from Oricon, and online sales weren’t counted on Oricon until like 2007. Furthermore the number of stores reporting to Oricon went up by like 10k just before Bakemonogatari aired, so this list is a lot more about good timing than it is about actual success.
November 23rd, 2010 at 4:48 am
compare (for example) http://web.archive.org/web/20070227223956/http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/index2.html with http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/index2.html
November 25th, 2010 at 2:40 am
Actually I can’t remember what the specific thing prompting this was, beyond something IRC. Maybe Kami nomi zo shiru sekai, but that one’s a little shaky (it probably would outsell Michiko e Hatchin, not sure about Five Leaves).
In any case I don’t think K-ON is a problem, or even Haruhi. If I see real non-Internet Americans who like a show I’m more or less happy, since they might, you know, buy it. There’s a big gap between those and Shuffle or etc. Now, SEED Destiny and Clannad are a problem…
November 26th, 2010 at 1:38 am
Did the additional stores added in the last few rounds for Oricon make that big of an impact on reported numbers for anime? I was under the impression that it was mostly conbini and the like, ie stores that Otaku don’t particularly order from. I’d expect more of a correlation between year and sales if it had that big of an impact, and nothing other than Bakemonogatari particularly stands out… it would also mean that Haruhi S2′s sales were even more pathetic ww
January 8th, 2011 at 3:23 am
I hardly see very many “serious” anime in that list either.
March 1st, 2011 at 7:24 pm
“Serious” here is the ones I (probably very inaccurately) listed under “seinen”. I didn’t say those sold very well either… then again I don’t think much of many of them.