Anime saved Netflix, and now the streaming service has become a central hub for fans of the familiar animation style worldwide.
Anime is an animation style that originated in Japan. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, it is “characterized by stark colorful graphics depicting vibrant characters in action-filled plots often with fantastic or futuristic themes.”
“Namakura Gatana,” produced in 1917, is considered the first example of anime. Over a hundred years later, the animation style has drastically evolved. Thousands of anime TV series and movies have been released to audiences worldwide.
Anime has exploded in popularity in the U.S. within the last few years, specifically with Generation Z.
Gen Z consumes anime at an unprecedented rate. A Dentsu survey found that 44% of individuals aged 18 to 24 in the U.S. have watched popular viral anime titles. Manga is also seeing a rise in sales worldwide, driving the younger generations to search for more content from their favorite series.
Netflix, a streaming service that began in 2007, recently became the world’s landing site for anime enjoyers. However, the streaming service has been pushing anime to its users since the early years of the website. “Knights of Sidonia” (2014) was the first official anime project to stream as a Netflix Original.
Since then, Netflix has offered a diverse anime content collection, including movies and original TV series for its users to watch or binge. Based on revenue and viewership, the streaming services efforts have proven fruitful.
In 2023, Netflix earned $2.2 billion in revenue from anime. Users watched 3.5 billion hours of anime and accounted for about 4% of the site’s total viewership, which was about 38% “of all anime streaming revenue.” In fact, Netflix nearly doubled Crunchyroll’s revenue.
Crunchyroll is a subscription-based streaming service focused on anime. The American streaming company was founded in 2006 by four University of California, Berkeley students. In 2024, the once-small website had over 15 million paid subscribers.
Netflix’s success is partially due to exclusive streaming rights of popular anime series such as “The Seven Deadly Sins” (2014) and “Devilman Crybaby” (2018). Some of the most popular anime shows in the U.S. also stream on Netflix, including “My Hero Academia” (2018), “Jujutsu Kaisen” (2020) and “Naruto” (2005).
Netflix’s live-action “One Piece” (2023) TV series adaptation helped bring interest to the streaming service. It increased general anime viewership and also brought attention to the animated series. Users watched 479 million hours of the original “One Piece” series following the live action’s release.
“One Piece” first aired on TV in 1999. In 2025, over 1,100 episodes and 25 seasons later, the show is still going strong. Fans of anime or not, many Netflix users may remember seeing the show on television as a child. Perhaps, this nostalgia factor is driving users to watch the show or other, older anime available on Netflix.
However, Netflix’s anime surge was not an unplanned incident.
Female users tend to use Netflix more consistently than male users. In fact, most “subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services tend to have an audience that skews female,” according to Parrot Analytics. It’s no wonder then why SVODs have suddenly increased their anime, a genre with a primarily male fanbase, offerings.
Netflix has brought in thousands of new anime viewers and provided content to life-long fans. No matter the service’s intentions, Netflix plays a major role in making anime accessible to a U.S. audience.
