September 22, 2026, 12:33 pm | Read time: 2 minutes
Anime is no longer a niche phenomenon. For Netflix, the genre is increasingly becoming a major audience draw. New analyses show that viewing times for anime have risen significantly more in recent years than the overall use of the platform. At the same time, the share of anime in all hours watched on Netflix is steadily growing.
Anime is becoming more popular
This is according to the report “The Anime Economy” by the market research firm Media Partners Asia (MPA). The basis includes the semi-annual “What We Watched” reports from Netflix.
According to the report, viewing times for anime increased from 3.33 billion to 4.64 billion hours between the first half of 2023 and the first half of 2026. This represents an increase of 39 percent. In the same period, overall Netflix usage grew by only 4.5 percent. Japanese animation thus grew almost ten times faster than the platform as a whole.
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The trend is also evident in the genre’s share of total viewing hours. In the first half of 2023, 3.6 percent of all hours watched were Japanese anime. Three years later, it was already 4.75 percent.
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Netflix itself underscores the growing importance of anime. In its current report, Netflix states: “Today, more than half of our members have watched at least one anime title.”
Asia is driving the anime boom
Anime is particularly strong in the Asian streaming market. According to MPA, it reaches more users there than any other major genre studied. In the eight analyzed markets, between 31 and 47 percent of users watch anime on a paid streaming service in any given month. For the other seven main genres, the share is only between 26 and 34 percent, according to the study.
Netflix also plays a central role in the offerings. According to MPA, the provider offers about half of all available anime titles in the eight markets studied. Analysts therefore expect further growth. By 2030, global spending on anime is expected to increase by about ten percent annually. The study names Asia outside Japan and North America as the most important growth markets.