Anime accounts for a larger share of streaming viewers in Asia than any other genre, Media Partners Asia (MPA) has found, reaching between 31% and 47% of premium VOD users across eight key markets in the region.
The Anime Economy features insights from MPA’s ampd measurement panels, along with Netflix data, research and interviews, and highlights a growing shift away from licensing anime to owning it.
Anime’s share of between 31% and 47% is significantly ahead of the 26% to 34% average of other genres. in Japan, anime commands between 45% and 59%, Across the eight markets, anime was 14% of tracked premium-VOD hours in the first half of this year.
The number one anime in seven of the eight tracked markets in the first half of this year was Jujutsu Kaisen, helping to power animation studio MAPPA’s share of streaming hours from 6% to 17.3%, ahead of TMS Entertainment (16.6%), Toei Animation (13%) and Aniplex-mastered titles (12%).
Half of the anime hours viewed in the region were on Netflix, MPA says, while in Japan, Prime Video has the edge at 43% of anime hours in 2H 2025. Netflix drew level at 42% each in 1H 2026.
The MPA report also notes that Netflix’s anime viewing has risen to 4.6 billion hours from 3.3 billion hours in 2023, accounting for 4.75% of all hours. Most of Netflix’s anime content (80%) is licensed, but its MAPPA partnership this year reflects a move toward owned franchises.
YouTube, meanwhile, is a key hub for the genre, from official channels like Aniplex (5.1 million monthly viewers) and TOHO animation (4.8 million) to digital-native studios such as Plott.
Since 2021, there have been 21 anime transactions and alliances, and 11 of them happened in 2025-26. Sony was involved with seven of them, building an end-to-end stack across Crunchyroll (21 million paid subscribers), Aniplex, Sony Pictures, and Sony Music, plus stakes in Kadokawa and Bandai Namco. TOHO, Toei Animation, Bandai Namco and Japanese broadcasters have opted for studios, distributors and pipelines.
Anime spending is expected to rise at a 10% CAGR to 2030, led by Asia ex-Japan and North America. The next two years will be key as companies explore how financing of new anime is shared between global platforms and Japanese IP groups.
“Anime’s scale is established; the question is where the next growth comes from and who captures it,” said Vivek Couto, CEO and executive director at MPA. “The catalysts are streaming pushing deeper into new markets globally, theatrical events on the scale of Infinity Castle becoming repeatable, and games and merchandise carrying franchises well beyond the screen. The direction is toward ownership: platforms financing production directly, Japanese IP groups buying studios, and the two learning to work together. The constraint is capacity, not demand or capital. The studios making the biggest hits are often the least able to invest, and the industry still leans on a handful of franchises. The companies that solve for capacity, and bring the animators with them, will be best placed for the next phase of growth.”
