While Solo Leveling Volume 2 Blu-ray and DVD sales data reveal surprisingly low numbers, its undeniable worldwide popularity and the quick announcement of Part 2 shows that How key industry changes like streaming have affected anime's success.

Oricon sales via Nakayasee on This ensures that it must sell less than the lowest Blu-rays to rank — Mashle Season 2 Episode 2 with 629 copies and Blue Exorcist Season 3 Episode 1 with 164 copies. This may come as a surprise to many viewers because this anime is extremely popular overseas. Despite the increase in activity from Volume 1—a major selling point for fans—Volume 2 along with Solo Leveling's first Blu-ray did not sell well, registering around 600 copies or less for the week Firstly.

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Physical anime sales aren't the same sign of success they once were

Despite this news, Blu-ray disc sales are no longer necessarily the determining factor in an anime series' success. The AJA 2023 Anime Industry Report recently released its 2022 figures, revealing that Internet distribution has increased nearly fivefold (165.2 billion yen/1.1 billion USD) over the past 10 years. At the same time, “Video” has dropped to a third of its value ($38.5 billion/$252 million). Meanwhile, income generated from abroad rose to a record high of 1.46 billion yen, or $1.8 billion, with streaming rights being a key factor. This will likely continue to grow as anime continues to penetrate the global mainstream market.

Solo Leveling's streaming popularity on Crunchyroll far exceeds its physical sales in the country

It's hard to deny the international popularity of Solo Leveling, which beat Crunchyroll upon launch, becoming the sixth most popular anime on the streaming platform and attracting many new fans and income under registration form. While it's impossible to know the exact conversion to subscriber count, readers can get a sense of Crunchyroll's scope for continued growth, skyrocketing from 5 million to 13 million between 2021 and 2024. Solo Leveling is also one of the most popular television series in the world compared to any other television series. average, via IMDb. The series is currently dubbed in 11 languages, including English, Japanese, French, Spanish, Hindi, and Korean. Meanwhile, subtitle options add Russian and Arabic languages ​​to the mix, which includes most of the world's most spoken languages ​​and anime hubs.

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The impact of Blu-ray sales can certainly be overstated, with MAPPA CEO Manabu Otsuka's comments about Chainsaw Man allegedly causing irreparable harm to with the series: “There are works that sell a lot of packages and there are also works that can be seen a lot through distribution. Honestly, I wish this work was available to a paying audience.” However, Blu-ray disc sales can still be a solid source of income; Jujutsu Kaisen recently broke its franchise sales record, with Season 2 Episode 1 earning around 200 million yen in its first week. Production figures for Jujutsu Kaisen are not public, so many industry figures place each individual episode at somewhere between 10 and 40 million yen, making back 200 million yen in a week is clearly a stretch. long to enter the green stage. Former MAPPA producer Makoto Kimura also recently reiterated that Chainsaw Man was a financial success.

Solo Leveling will return for Season 2 at an unconfirmed date. Crunchyroll streams the series and describes it: “They say that whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, but that's not the case for the world's weakest hunter Sung Jinwoo. After being brutally slaughtered by monsters in a high-level dungeon, Jinwoo returned to the System, a program that only he could see, helping him level up in every aspect. Now, he is inspired to discover the secrets behind his powers and the dungeon that gave birth to them.”

Level up alone

In a world of talented hunters and monsters, weak hunter Sung Jin-Woo gains extraordinary powers through a mysterious program, making him one of the strongest hunters and conquers the entire world. the strongest dungeons.

Release date January 7, 2024

Cast Alex Le, Taito Ban

Main category Work

Seasons first

Studio Image A-1

Creator Department of Public Works

Writer Noboru Kimura

Source: Nakayasee via X (formerly Twitter)