Anime Is Quietly Taking Over Netflix, and the Growth Numbers Are Staggering

Streaming platforms have spent the past several years chasing every possible edge to keep subscribers engaged, experimenting with genres, formats, and international content in search of the next breakout category. Few of those bets have paid off quite as dramatically as one particular genre that’s been steadily building momentum in the background.

Netflix has leaned increasingly into Japanese animation over the past few years, building out a slate that includes hits like ‘Blue Eye Samurai’ and ‘Cyberpunk: Edgerunners,’ alongside its live-action adaptation of ‘One Piece’ and the upcoming ‘Bass X Machina.’ That investment appears to be paying off in a way even the streamer’s own executives might not have fully anticipated.

A new report from Media Partners Asia (MPA), titled “The Anime Economy,” reveals that viewing to anime on Netflix has grown at nearly 10 times the rate of the platform’s overall viewing over the past three years. According to the report, Japanese anime viewing hours climbed from 3.33 billion in the first half of 2023 to 4.64 billion during the first half of this year, a 39% increase compared to just 4.5% growth across Netflix’s total viewing in the same period.

That surge has meaningfully shifted anime’s overall footprint within Netflix’s catalog. The genre’s share of total Netflix viewing hours rose from 3.6% to 4.75% over the same three-year window, a modest-sounding jump that reflects a genuinely outsized growth trajectory compared to everything else on the platform.

Zooming out to the broader Asian streaming landscape, the MPA report found anime commands the highest monthly reach of any genre across the region, with between 31% and 47% of premium video-on-demand users across eight markets watching anime in any given month, compared to a 26% to 34% average for the other seven main genres tracked. In Japan specifically, that reach climbs even higher, with 45% to 59% of premium VoD users tuning into anime monthly.

Within Japan itself, the competitive landscape has narrowed considerably. The report describes the market as now essentially a “two-horse race” between Netflix and Prime Video, with both platforms holding more than 40% of overall anime viewership share. YouTube also remains a major player in the space, reaching an estimated 70 million monthly viewers in Japan alone, according to the report’s findings.

MPA now projects global anime spending will grow by roughly 10% annually through 2030, with that expansion led primarily by markets in Asia outside Japan and North America. The report notes that growth will likely concentrate increasingly among a smaller group of franchise owners, studio groups, and platforms, rather than spreading evenly across the industry.

MPA’s CEO and executive director, Vivek Couto, framed the findings as a turning point for how the industry should think about anime’s future trajectory. “Anime’s scale is established; the question is where the next growth comes from and who captures it,” Couto said in comments included in the Variety coverage of the report. He pointed to streaming’s expansion into new global markets, repeatable theatrical events on the scale of ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle,’ and games and merchandise extending franchises beyond the screen as the key catalysts driving what comes next.

The report also highlighted Sony, whose holdings include Crunchyroll, Aniplex, Sony Pictures, and Sony Music, as the only company currently operating what MPA calls an “end-to-end anime stack,” spanning production, distribution, and monetization under one roof. That positioning could prove significant as more platforms and Japanese IP groups move toward owning franchises outright rather than simply licensing them.

What was once considered a niche category has clearly cemented itself as a mainstream driver of streaming engagement, and Netflix’s numbers make that shift difficult to ignore. With continued investment from major platforms and growing international demand, anime’s momentum shows little sign of slowing down anytime soon.

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