Summary

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FreedomDVD and Blu-ray versions are making great sales numbers in Japan!Mobile Suit Gundamhas seemingly gainedmomentumin Japan and internationally sinceGundam: The Witch from Mercury(G-Witch) – whilethe franchise is well-established in Japan,G-Witchwas able to attract new audiences to the series.

TheGundam Seedmovie, which debuted in Japan last year, was a long-awaited one – it was originally announced in 2006 –, and quickly became the highest-grossingGundammovie, grossing over 36 million dollars.

The Blu-ray and DVD editions were released on June 20, 2025, in Japan, andthey 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.

Amazing Numbers for a Declining Media Format

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 isChainsaw Man: while the anime took over the internet while airing, it soldaround 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 asGundam Seed Freedom: back then,Bocchi the Rocksold 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 Slayeris one example. So, the first thing that could explainSeed 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 ensure 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 Freedomis not available to stream in the US. However, theGundam Seedoriginal TV series is onCrunchyroll.

More Good Gundam News

Gundamfans 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 aboutGundam Hathaway Part 2(which is currently in production) and maybe also about that live-action movie thatkeeps getting re-announced once in a while.

Source:Minkara, Oricon viaWayback Machine(2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8)