[dimmke]

When I say it could sustain a studio, I just mean revenue from merchandise sales etc... It's such a popular IP there's an entire theme park devoted to it.

I'd say NGE is absolutely more popular than Gundam. I think there's a perfect "target age" to get into NGE, and that age is 13-15 and new generations discover it. Quentin Tarantino once said the same thing about a lot of his old movies.

[dimmke]

To attempt to put some metrics to this, NGE is in the mid 40s of the top 50 most popular anime list on MAL: https://myanimelist.net/topanime.php?type=bypopularity

No Gundam series is in the top 50.

It's also the oldest anime in that top 50 list, which I think is really indicative of how popular it is. The only other one that's even from the 90s is Cowboy Bepop.

[aidenn0]

OT, but: I really don't understand why Death Note is so popular. It was an above average first season that went downhill super fast. I gave up on it the first episode after the recap episode (26 if Wikipedia is right), and nothing in my conversations with other people have led me to believe the last dozen or so episodes would change my opinion on it.

[Macha]

MAL's demographics is probably the answer. Anime had a big wave in the 00s, and Death Note, Code Geass, Toradora, FMA and Gintama are all probably beneficiaries of that for higher ratings in MAL than in forums populated by younger or older fans.

[aidenn0]

That's part of it, but Death Note is, IMO, the worst series that you mention in your comment (Gintama is definitely not my cup of tea, but I can understand the attraction to it by those for whom it is). I ought to be in the target audience for Death Note, and I found it to be mediocre.