Seven out of the top 10 markets with the largest growth of interest in watching anime are in Europe, according to a report from Ampere Analysis. They include Germany, Finland, Italy, the UK, France, Poland, and Spain which have seen a 3% to 9% increase in anime enjoyment in the past five years. Asia Pacific markets such as the Philippines, Indonesia and South Korea still show the highest interest in anime.
The report revealed strong growth opportunities for Japanese anime in Europe, driven by Netflix's anime productions, and Crunchyroll's dominance in the West, and suggested a new wave of popularity for the format is underway in the region.
Amid rising interest, available Japanese anime titles have also been increasing in the seven European markets, from 1,945 titles in 2019 to 2,755 titles in 2023, a 42% increase in the past five years. This has been driven primarily by global streaming giants Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and niche anime-focused platform Crunchyroll. Between 294 and 481 new titles (titles produced in the past three years) were made available in the seven European markets in 2023, but this is around one-third the rate of new titles released in Taiwan, leaving ample capacity for importing new content into Europe.
Meanwhile, Netflix has ramped up its anime offer through licensing and co-production partnerships with Japanese broadcasters and studios over the past five years, successfully growing its anime catalogue from 602 titles in 2019 to 891 titles in 2023 and pushing Japanese content (about half are anime) to the second largest content type by volume on Netflix globally.
Moreover, since April 2024, Crunchyroll has become the single most powerful anime-focused platform in the West in terms of both its anime catalogue size and subscriber base, due to its merger with anime dedicated service Funimation (both owned by Sony).
Therefore, European local and regional services should leverage the building appetite for anime in Europe and the wide availability of content yet to be exploited in the region to gain a competitive edge and achieve long-term growth.
Motohiko Ara, Analyst at Ampere Analysis said: “Japanese anime is becoming increasingly popular around the world and European markets have seen the largest rise in interest. Global anime fans are skewed towards young demographics and those between 18 and 34 years old particularly enjoy the genre. This presents a growth opportunity to current anime carriers including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Crunchyroll, and other SVoD platforms in Europe. With anime proving popular with its newly released titles and classic long-running franchises the content provides opportunities both for new customer acquisition and retention.”
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