A new report (via AnimeNewsNetwork) confirms the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) will soon publish its Anime Industry Report 2019 on December 9th.

A preview of the report published on November 29th notes the anime industry in 2018 was valued at over 2.1814 trillion yen (est. $19.9 billion)- a 0.9% increase on the prior year.

In fact, the industry has seen growth for the past nine years, and has achieved a record high for the sixth consecutive year.

Editor’s Note: The above chart units are in 100 million yen.

In addition, the results were broken down by domestic markets (the solid line) and overseas markets (the dotted line).

As you can see on the chart below, 2018 was the first time the domestic market has grown since 2014. Comparatively, the overseas market has now surpassed 1 trillion yen mark (est. $9.14 billion). In both cases, growth from 2017 was comparatively minor.

Additional fact include (reportedly) how other various areas fared in 2018. Live events’ value grew by 23.1%, and streaming by 10.2%. However merchandising rights value decreased by 4.4%, and home video by 23.3%. This marks the home video market’s fifth consecutive yearly decrease.

As the Japanese market finally grows again, the international market is about to catch up. Combined with the reduced sales of home video, and the rising popularity of streaming- will that gap get even closer?

What do you think the anime industry’s future holds? Sound off in the comments below!