Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics has placed together a report with some help from a subreddit user/moderator, EvanDeadlySinsW as they look back at how New Japan Pro Wrestling fared during the COVID pandemic. NJPW brought in a net income of $60,000 between August 2020 through June 2021. This is comparable to $1.85 million during the same one-year period between August 2019 and June 2020. Thurston said this is essentially a “break even business”.
While revenue numbers are less clear due to the fact that NJPW stopped publishing official revenue numbers in 2019, it is noted that Bushiroad reported in June that its sports division (NJPW and Stardom) generated about $40 million (4.5 billion yen). NJPW drew in 116,000 subscribers for their NJPW World service back in January 2021, as STARDOM World was noted by Bushiroad President Takaai Kidani in September as having almost 10,000 subscribers.
You can check out all the numbers by Thurston/Wrestlenomics below:
Some notes on New Japan Pro-Wrestling business. Thanks to @EvanDeadlySinsW for help with this info.
From Aug 2020 to June 2021, New Japan didn't lose money but was basically a break even business, reporting the equivalent of about $60,000 USD in net income. pic.twitter.com/PoK4f65unB
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) October 25, 2021
One reason why revenue might be holding up, a Bushiroad investors presentation slide disclosed NJPWWorld reach 116,000 paid subscribers in Jan 2021, the service's highest ever. That's slightly lower than my past estimates of sub counts. pic.twitter.com/NTsk7yvdfT
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) October 25, 2021
New Japan and Stardom makeup about 14% of Bushiroad's overall business. pic.twitter.com/9HBuU4ZdZX
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) October 25, 2021
