So the market isn't democratic, and that's fine, they try to hold on a really minority, data say so. Why is happening in every platform. Netflix's Cowboy Bebop got axed, Boruto is making really bad, at least the Manga. Why companies just don't realize how much they are losing.
I would argue that Boruto as anime product isn't doing that great either.
If you read the latest earnings report from TV Tokyo, Boruto is ranked under Naruto. It's a red flag when an active/on-going anime generate less money than an anime that ended more than 5 years ago.
Furthermore, I can't stop giggling whenever Naruto apologists mentioned "It's number 1 or 2, it must be very popular in Japan".
We'll, no. Not necessarily. First off, TV Tokyo is not the only broadcasters in Japan. They're big, but not the biggest in Japan (to be precise, they're at 4th rank most of the time according to many public reports).
Secondly, TV Tokyo net income has been declining since 2016 by ~45%. In absolute figure, it's a decline from 4.7 billion yen in 2016 to 2.6 billion yen in 2021. Many believe that the decline is across the conventional broadcasting industry due to the rise of streaming services. Also, I believe TV Tokyo has never shared the absolute figures of how much each franchise in their report is making. They just shared the ranks in their annual report. Given that all of the segments shrunk in TV Tokyo net income, we can only assume that Naruto franchise absolute figure was also declining. How much exactly is not known to public. Now, to put it into perspective: What Boruto earned this year is potentially lower than what it earned last year and the year before. Compound that to the fact that it ranked below Naruto, then you will immediately see that it's not doing that great.
If people are comparing it with other franchise like Pokémon, they really have no idea how all these things work. Pokémon is THE highest grossing media franchise of all time, and majority of its income generated from merchandise. To put it into perspective, Pokémon grosses roughly about 3.2x all Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise products combined. Trying to compare Naruto franchise with Pokémon franchise would be a joke.
Another indicator is customers stickiness. Behaviorally, when broadcasted products are doing great, its customers will buy things related to the franchise outside of the broadcasting corridor. Not just manga but also merchandise, games and others. We've seen this happening at all times, whether it is Dragon Ball, One Piece, Attack on Titan, Kimetsu no Yaiba, etc. It's a network effects. When Japanese kids are talking about a character in anime series, their parents would find something related to that franchise as gift for family occasion, etc. Before long, everyone regardless of age would be familiar with the franchise in one way or another.
This is the stark customer behavioral differences between successful broadcast products and ordinary broadcast products. It distinguished which products customers are buying and which one that are "just there for the sake of it." Boruto anime falls into the second criteria. If you label your product as kids anime, shown during the time families are at home, it is almost guaranteed that your show would be "popular". It's that kind of kids show in which other options are either Chibi Maruko-chan or Sazae-san (both are great, btw). For Naruto franchise, its manga sales have always been the proxy indicator of the franchise's success. Naruto franchise doesn't rely on merchandise and their latest game (Shinobi Striker) was a flop.