In Japan, "Dragon Ball Z" did not receive a home video release until 2003, seven years after its broadcast. This was a remastering of the series in two 26-disc DVD box sets, that were made-to-order only, released on March 19 and September 18 and referred to as "Dragon Boxes." The content of these sets began being released on mass-produced individual 6-episode DVDs on November 2, 2005, and finished with the 49th volume released on February 7, 2007.
The international home release structure of "Dragon Ball Z" is complicated by the licensing and release of the companies involved in producing and distributing the work. Releases of the media occurred on both VHS and DVD with separate edited and uncut versions being released simultaneously. Both versions of the edited and uncut material are treated as different entries and would frequently make "Billboard" rankings as separate entries. Home release sales were featured prominently on the Nielsen VideoScan charts. Further complicating the release of the material was Funimation itself; which was known to release "DVDs out of sequence in order to get them out as fast as possible"; as in the case of their third season. Pioneer Entertainment distributed the Funimation/Saban edited-only dub of 53 episodes on seventeen VHS between 1997 and 1999, and seventeen DVDs throughout 1999. Two box sets separating them into the Saiyan and Namek arcs were also released on VHS in 1999, and on DVD in 2001. Funimation's own distribution of their initial onward dub, which began with episode 54, in edited or uncut VHS ran between 1999 and 2006. A DVD version was produced alongside these, although they were only produced uncut and contained the option to watch the original Japanese with subtitles.
In 2005, Funimation began releasing their onward dub of the beginning of "Dragon Ball Z" on DVD, marking the first time the episodes were seen uncut in North America. However, only nine volumes were released, leaving it incomplete. Instead, Funimation remastered and cropped the entire series into 16:9 widescreen format and began re-releasing it to DVD in nine individual "season" box sets; the first set released on February 6, 2007 and the final on May 19, 2009. In July 2009, Funimation announced that they would be releasing the Japanese frame-by-frame "Dragon Box" restoration of "Dragon Ball Z" in North America. These seven limited edition collector's DVD box sets were released uncut in the show's original 4:3 fullscreen format between November 10, 2009 and October 11, 2011.
In March 2019, Funimation announced plans to release a 30th anniversary Blu-ray release of "Dragon Ball Z", with the box set being remastered in 4:3 aspect ratio, and containing an art book and a collectible figure. It would be crowdfunded, originally requiring a minimum of 2500 pre-orders in order to be manufactured, but was later increased to a minimum of 3,000 units. The release sparked controversy amongst fans due to the framing of the video, color saturation, and digital video noise reduction. Funimation responded by stating that they cropped the release by going in "scene-by-scene to make judgments based on the image available in each frame of how much to trim to get to a consistent 4:3 aspect ratio, while still attempting to cut a little out of the picture as possible," and that they felt the digital video noise reduction was "mandatory for this release based on the different levels of fan support from various past DBZ releases with different levels of noise reduction over the years.
The "Dragon Ball Z" films comprise a total of 15 entries as of 2015. The first 13 films were typically released every March and July during the series' original run in accordance with the spring and summer vacations of Japanese schools. They were typically double features paired up with other anime films, and were thus, usually an hour or less in length. These films themselves offer contradictions in both chronology and design that make them incompatible with a single continuity. All 15 films were licensed in North America by Funimation, and all have received in-house dubs by the company. Prior to Funimation, the third film was a part of the short-lived Saban syndication, being split into three episodes, and the first three films received uncut English dubs in 1998 produced by Funimation with Ocean Studios and released by Pioneer. Several of the films have been broadcast on Cartoon Network and Nicktoons in the United States, Toonami UK in the United Kingdom (these featured an alternate English dub produced by an unknown cast by AB Groupe), and Cartoon Network in Australia.
Three TV specials based on "Dragon Ball Z" were produced and broadcast on Fuji TV. The first two were "" in 1990 and "" in 1993, the latter being based on a special chapter of the original manga. Both were licensed by Funimation in North America and AB Groupe in Europe. In 2013, a two-part hour-long crossover with "One Piece" and "Toriko", titled "Dream 9 Toriko & One Piece & Dragon Ball Z Chō Collaboration Special!!", was created and aired.
Additionally, two original video animations (OVAs) bearing the "Dragon Ball Z" title have been made. The first is "", which was originally released in 1993 in two parts as "Official Visual Guides" for the video game of the same title. "" was a 2010 remake of this OVA. None of the OVAs have been dubbed into English, and the only one to see a release in North America is the 2010 remake, which was subtitled and included as a bonus feature in "".
There are over 57 video games bearing the "Dragon Ball Z" name across a range of platforms from the Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom to the current generation consoles. Also included are arcade games like "Super Dragon Ball Z", which would eventually be ported to consoles.
In North America, licensing rights had been given to both Namco Bandai and Atari. In 1999, Atari acquired exclusive rights to the video games through Funimation, a deal which was extended for five more years in 2005. A 2007 dispute would end with Atari paying Funimation $3.5 million. In July 2009, Namco Bandai was reported to have obtained exclusive rights to release the games for a period of five years. This presumably would have taken effect after Atari's licensing rights expired at the end of January 2010.
"Dragon Ball Z" has been host to numerous soundtrack releases with works like "Cha-La Head-Cha-La" and a series of 21 soundtracks released as part of the "Dragon Ball Z Hit Song Collection Series". In total, dozens of releases exist for "Dragon Ball Z" which includes Japanese and foreign adapted releases of the anime themes and video game soundtracks.
In Asia, the "Dragon Ball Z" franchise, including the anime and merchandising, earned a profit of $3billion by 1999. In the United States, the series sold over 25million DVDs as of January 2012. Dragon Ball fans set a Guinness World Record for Largest Kamehameha attack move at San Diego Comic con on July 17, 2019.
"Dragon Ball Z" was listed as the 78th best animated show in IGN's "Top 100 Animated Series", and was also listed as the 50th greatest animated show in "Wizard" magazine's "Top 100 Greatest Animated shows" list. The series ranked #6 on "Wizard's Anime" Magazine on their "Top 50 Anime released in North America".
"Dragon Ball Z"s popularity is reflected through a variety of data through online interactions which show the popularity of the media. In 2001, it was reported that the official website of "Dragon Ball Z" recorded 4.7 million hits per day and included 500,000+ registered fans. The term "Dragonball Z" ranked 4th in 1999 and 2nd in 2000 by Lycos' web search engine. For 2001, "Dragonball" was the most popular search on Lycos and "Dragonball Z" was fifth on Yahoo!.