ANIMÉ is taking up more entertainment time among Gen Z and teenage fans globally, stoking a broader cultural appetite for related merchandise, games, and manga.
Across 10 countries surveyed, 79% of animé fans between the ages of 13 and 17 said they’re watching more animé than a year ago. Meanwhile, 68% of Gen Zers said the same, according to new findings for Sony Group Corp.’s animé streaming platform Crunchyroll conducted by the National Research Group, a strategy consultancy.
Aided by the rise of international streaming platforms such as Netflix Inc. and Crunchyroll, which has about 21 million paid subscribers, animé connected with new audiences across the globe during the pandemic. More than half of Netflix’s members now regularly watch animé. Crunchyroll estimates that roughly 1.6 billion people outside Japan and China have some interest in animé.
Last year, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle grossed about $137 million domestically, an unusually large haul for a Japanese animated film. On streaming platforms, animé titles from Studio Ghibli’s feature films to Dan Da Dan to the decades-long series One Piece by Toei Animation Co. have been increasingly topping the charts.
“You’re hitting a lot of tailwinds all at once,” Gita Rebbapragada, chief operating officer of Crunchyroll, said in an interview. “That’s creating a real moment.”
Animé has moved further into the mainstream and celebrities from Megan Thee Stallion to Bad Bunny have publicly embraced it.
In the US, interest in the genre continues to grow. The share of consumers ages 13 to 54 who watch Japanese animation at least weekly rose to 41% this year from 39%, while the share watching daily jumped to 21% this year from 13% in 2025.
NRG surveyed about 5,000 animé viewers across 10 markets — including the US, UK, India, and South Korea — as well as 500 viewers in Japan. Respondents watched animé at least monthly. More than four in five teen fans said that animé accounts for at least half of everything they watch, with 44% saying it makes up most of their viewing.
“There is a real cultural fit with the next generation of fans,” Ms. Rebbapragada said. “Gen Z and Gen Alpha — it’s incredibly resonant with them.”
The latest research was unveiled at Crunchyroll’s Anime Future Forum in New York. In an opening speech, Sony Group President and Chief Executive Officer Hiroki Totoki said the company operates across the animé value chain, from its streaming platform Crunchyroll to production studio Aniplex and PlayStation. Sony and Crunchyroll are committed to helping build an animé industry that can thrive for decades by investing in creators and talent, protecting intellectual property and cultivating global fandom, he said.
In the NRG study, more than 70% of animé fans listened to soundtracks, bought merchandise, and played animé-based games. Others learned Japanese, cooked animé-inspired meals or even named pets, plants, and cars after characters. The survey found that animé fans aren’t abandoning the genre as they get older. Among viewers ages 45 to 54, 58% said their fandom had intensified. Japan’s decades old manga and animé franchises can keep fans engaged for generations, a quality that makes the medium unique, Ms. Rebbapragada said.
“There is a myth that you sort of age out of animé,” she said. “That’s actually not what the data is showing.” — Bloomberg