Anime has emerged as the most-watched genre on Asian streaming platforms, outperforming all other categories and prompting a major shift from content licensing to direct IP ownership, according to ‘The Anime Economy’ report released by Singapore-based Media Partners Asia (MPA).

Between July 2025 and August 2026, anime reached 31 percent to 47 percent of premium VOD users monthly across eight Asian markets, compared to 26 percent to 34 percent for seven other combined genres. 

In Japan, reach spiked to 45 percent to 59 percent. Anime accounted for 15.6 percent of tracked Asian premium VOD hours in the second half of 2025 and 14 percent in the first half of 2026, rising to 28 percent in Japan, the MPA report stated.

Netflix leads regional distribution, capturing 50 percent of tracked anime hours in the first half of 2026, according to a MPA press statement issued yesterday, which gives highlights of the report. 

The platform’s Japanese anime viewing jumped 39 percent in three years — from 3.33 billion hours in the first half of 2023 to 4.64 billion in the first half of 2026 — outpacing its overall viewing growth of 4.5 percent. 

Anime now constitutes 4.75 percent of total Netflix hours, up from 3.6 percent. 

While four-fifths of these hours remain licensed library content, strategic moves like a January 2026 partnership with production house MAPPA mark a pivot toward owned franchises.

In Japan, Netflix drew level with long-time market leader Amazon Prime Video in the first half of 2026, with both platforms capturing a 42 percent share of anime viewing hours.

Studio dominance rotates rapidly alongside mega-hits. Driven by ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’, the number-one anime in seven of eight markets in early 2026, studio MAPPA tripled its share of anime hours from 6 percent to 17.3 percent in a single half, narrowly leading TMS Entertainment (16.6 percent), Toei Animation (13 percent), and Aniplex (12 percent).

Meanwhile, YouTube has transformed into an operational media ecosystem, drawing 70 million monthly Japanese viewers and 2.8 billion hours. 

Official channels like Aniplex (5.1 million monthly viewers) and TOHO animation (4.8 million) now run as commercial businesses, while native studios like Plott build low-cost franchises.

Industry consolidation is accelerating, with 11 of 21 tracked transactions since 2021 occurring in 2025-26. Sony has established an end-to-end stack across Crunchyroll (21 million paid subscribers), Aniplex, Sony Pictures, and Sony Music, alongside stakes in Kadokawa and Bandai Namco.

MPA projects global anime spending will compound at nearly 10 percent annually through 2030.

“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,” said Vivek Couto, CEO & Executive Director of MPA.

“The constraint is capacity, not demand or capital. The companies that solve for capacity… will be best placed for the next phase of growth,” he added.