A Niche of Their Own – Diving into the Top Anime Titles by Streaming Platform
by Kalai Chik,2025 proved to be a big year for anime, as global box office performance and streaming views compete head-to-head with Hollywood-produced content. Streaming giants, Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video have been investing in their anime library and even chasing those audiences in other avenues, such as live-action adaptations. However, it goes without saying that anime fans have their genre preferences, and streaming platforms cater to those tastes. With over 250 new anime titles across Netflix, Crunchyroll, Hulu, Prime Video, and HIDIVE, overarching winner-take-all ranking systems are going to shut out some very stellar series.
Whether it be on the Anime News Network forums or other social media platforms, there will always be one user asking the question, “Why isn't XYZ title in this list?” As a result, I compiled a database of all anime titles released in 2025, including those that began in Fall 2024 and continued into 2025, along with their respective U.S. streaming platforms. Outside of Netflix's What We Watched engagement report, there are no public data points consistent across the streamers. Instead, I developed a ranking system based on a popularity index derived from Google Search, engagement, and mentions across social media platforms to identify the top titles by streaming platform. Given that Netflix released its full report from last year, I included three lists to illustrate how online discussion and actual viewership can differ.
A Top-Level View of 2025's Anime Series
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Taking a step back, anime based on manga adaptations accounted for the largest share of titles available in the U.S. in 2025. Novels (which include light novels, web novels, and visual novels from Japan, China, and Korea) came in second. Less than 10% of the most engaged with anime titles are original stories, which aren't based on a pre-existing story or franchise, including LAZARUS, To Be Hero X, ZENSHU, Apocalypse Hotel, Dusk Beyond the End of the World, and Moonrise. These are all well-reviewed series, but within the broader environment of adaptations and franchises, it's difficult to stand out.
Unsurprisingly, Solo Leveling's massive success carried into its second season, and would take the lion's share of popularity within the Novel category. Although webtoon adaptations aren't highly represented in the above chart, I expect next year to see a larger increase as companies such as WEBTOON, LINE Manga, and others are developing projects based on their IP. Companies are still looking for those franchises that can hook an audience, as 80% of releases last year were new seasons, and the remaining 20% were continuations.
Anime insider Vincent Imaoka, former producer of original anime at Netflix and former business development at Viz Media, chimed in on his thoughts on which genres perform well in the U.S. “Action and isekai, which is starting to become really mainstream because it's not tied to Japanese culture specifically,” he shared. “Fantasy settings always work because multiple cultures can get it.” From his perspective, sequels underperform because they require prior knowledge to be understood. “If you didn't watch the original, you're probably not going to watch the sequel.”
Top 10 Series on Netflix
In 2025, viewers on Netflix watched 8.9 billion hours of anime globally according to Miles Atherton's Anime by the Numbers blog, making around 4.6% of the 191 billion total hours watched on the platform. There is no specific data point for the US or any specific country. As a note, the worldwide hours viewed are a combined total of both Netflix's 2025 first and second half engagement reports and include viewership from the second half of 2024 for Fall '24 anime. Netflix's publicly released reports only include a global total and do not provide a breakdown by country. Certain titles are only available in specific countries, but Netflix doesn't disclose which countries it distributes those series within the data. Overall, its new, exclusive content for 2025 consisted of fewer than two dozen anime titles, consistent with previous years.
SAKAMOTO DAYS dominated Netflix's newly released anime series at over 212M hours viewed globally. Compared with social and search rankings, the top-performing series below the hitman-focused anime tell a different story. New content accounted for only about 7% of total anime hours viewed, in contrast to the large share of franchise series with long histories. When examining the overall Netflix catalogue, its library content still holds dominance, as the other nine spots are occupied by anime that range from one year old to twenty years old.
Looking at titles that were released between the fall season of 2024 and the end of 2025, a different pattern arises. This viewership-based ranking differs slightly from the social-and-search engagement-based methodology in the chart in the next section. Interestingly, all the top ten new titles were available in both Japan and the US. Because the total global hours provided by Netflix aren't delineated by region, it's possible that viewership hours were more driven by viewership in Japan than in the US and other regions.
Record of Ragnarok season three dropped all at once on December 10, 2025, and the release strategy didn't allow for search and social to build. It did, however, reap 67.6M hours; that's about 14% less than its season two performance, which had 78.2M hours viewed in 2023. My Melody & Kuromi's stop-motion anime was also a highly watched series but did not generate as much online discussion or off-platform activity, likely due to confusion between the show and the larger Sanrio brand.
At the same time, Netflix's variety in its top programming shows it's catering to a wide audience. By view counts, the first five spots are occupied by action titles, while the remaining are rom-com, family-friendly, and historical fantasy. As the sole horror title, The Summer Hikaru Died raked in 24.2M hours viewed, ranked 15th in hours viewed among the new 2025 anime titles on Netflix, and was the fifth most discussed and searched anime for the platform that year. It's also the only new horror title in the overall top anime list, and likely the lower viewership on Netflix was because the series was free to stream in Japan on ABEMA.
Impressively, the Fall 2024 series, Dragon Ball Daima, Blue Box, and Orb: On the Movements of the Earth pulled in additional hours in the second half of 2025, far after their second cours were over. Blue Box had 18.1M hours viewed between July and December 2025, which was right below WITCH WATCH at 19.3M and Ranma1/2 Season 2 at 17.1M. This is evidence in favor of the weekly release schedule over the batch or binge one. According to Parrot Analytics, Drama (35.3%), Animation (16.5%), and Comedy (12.9%) were the top three in-demand genres among episodic releases. In the same vein, anime appears to connect more effectively with audiences when released periodically rather than through binge releases.
Another notable feature among the three charts is that Orb is the only anime without an English dub or any language other than the original Japanese audio. Yet it ranks in the top ten for both hours watched and online engagement, even as 80-90% of Netflix users prefer dubbed anime. One theory as to why this is the case is the attention economy—audiences are distracted. Netflix itself is well aware of how the average viewer simultaneously monitors a second screen, and anime fans would fall in this bucket as well. They likely opt for a dubbed version in their native language rather than the original Japanese to understand the context of the on-screen events, thereby allowing them to perform other tasks simultaneously.
Top 10 Series on Crunchyroll
Onto the streamer with the largest anime library, Crunchyroll has the widest range of releases with over a hundred new exclusive titles in 2025. Sony announced Solo Leveling season two ranked as the highest viewed anime in Crunchyroll's history. As the streaming platform with the highest number of anime releases, it has three non-exclusive titles among its top ten series by online engagement. Online engagement for DAN DA DAN season two, a multi-platform release, stood above exclusive titles such as Gachiakuta and The Apothecary Diaries season two.
As for seasonal releases (based on Crunchyroll's new titles in 2025), the fall saw the most anime releases at 31%, just slightly above the summer season at 29%. Half of the top ten series in the chart above are summer releases, which is more than the other streaming platforms. Despite it being a highly competitive window, Crunchyroll promoted these titles (My Dress-Up Darling S2, Gachiakuta, and Kaiju No. 8 S2) amongst others—that didn't make it to the list—at Anime Expo 2025. Although there is no direct correlation, this underscores the importance of in-person promotion. As 79% of surveyed 18-35-year-olds plan on attending more events in 2026, big anime conventions remain a key area for brands to reach their target audiences face-to-face.
Similar to Netflix's audiences, Crunchyroll CEO Rahul Purini claimed “48% of UK fans also watch their anime subtitled – more than anywhere else in the world.” This would mean viewers in the U.S. watch subtitled anime at less than that percentage, meaning more than half of American audiences are watching anime dubbed. As such, Crunchyroll is focused on “investing in dubs,” and nine of the titles shown above had English dubs available at launch. Takopi would later add an English dub on January 22, 2026 as a result of its “sleeper hit” status.
Among the titles available in the U.S., only two non-continuing series made the top titles: Gachiakuta and Takopi's Original Sin. With a platform boasting 17 million anime fans, the diverse taste within the audience pool seems to lean towards familiar follow-ups from the previous year. Only ~25% of Crunchyroll's over 150 title releases last year were sequels, yet 80% of the top titles are continuing installments. It'll be interesting to see how this coming year will be affected by Crunchyroll's subscription price increase.
Top 10 Series on Amazon Prime Video
Now, looking at the top series on Amazon Prime Video, there's a transition into more anime titles with female leads. From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman, a fantasy anime based on a light novel, hailed as the top performer on both Prime Video's site and outside its platform. Online feedback highlighted the enjoyment of the middle-aged main character, a “dad-like” figure, and its impressive medieval swordsmanship.
Despite the high-quality anime series available exclusively on the platform, public opinion of Prime Video is mixed. At the recent Prime Video Presents: International Originals showcase, Gaurav Gandhi—the platform's Vice President for APAC & ANZ—highlighted its status as “the home for the best anime in Japan” and its vision for it to become the “preferred destination for anime content globally.” So far, the streamer has shown little indication of how it will promote anime in the US, as anime fans don't simply flock from platform to platform. Although Prime Video may have an impressive library and upcoming titles—like the reboot of Hokuto no Ken -Fist of the North Star- and The Ghost in the Shell—these anime franchises may not resonate globally the same way they do in Japan, based on previous major releases, like in the case of GQuuuuuuX. Prime Video will need to do more to actively court the anime audience, rather than simply serving as a repository for reputable and renowned anime titles.
It's unlikely to be a platform of consideration for anime fans in the U.S., given its placement behind Netflix, Crunchyroll, and Hulu in terms of anime revenue contribution. Now, after news of its “AI beta” dub pilot program—and subsequent removal—anime fans have angrily voiced opposition towards the platform.
Overall, Prime Video doesn't carry as many broad action titles as other streamers and has released only about a dozen. It's difficult to look at this list without feeling a sense of sadness over the missed opportunities, especially as Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX—arguably one of the most popular titles in Japan—and Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 sit so far down the list. In fact, GQuuuuuuX won best series in the TV category at the Tokyo Anime Award Festival. Even though there was promotion for several of these top series at Anime Expo 2024 and 2025, as well as premiere launch events for Umamusume: Cinderella Gray and Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 at the TCL Chinese Theatre, there seems to be little traction and discussion in support of Prime Video anime. For now, it hasn't laid out how exactly it will be reaching anime fans without overrelying on the franchise's Japanese popularity to carry it overseas—a strategy that didn't work well for the anime titles it distributed in 2025.
Top 10 Series on Hulu
In contrast, Hulu has been promoting its wide animation library through its Animayhem marketing activations. Releasing about twenty titles in 2025, the top performers are almost all action titles except for WITCH WATCH. Medalist just barely didn't make the cut, despite being a beloved series in Japan and ranking sixth in Newtype's Anime Awards for Best Work. It's also one of the handful of exclusive Hulu titles, which include Go! Go! Loser Ranger! Season 2, Wandance, BULLET/BULLET, Cats Eye, and Disney Twisted-Wonderland: THE ANIMATION (through Disney+). Hulu has made great strides since the years when it was considered a dumping ground.
The popularity of these action series is often front and center in the Animayhem pop-ups and, unfortunately, ends up overshadowing other interesting titles. Given its proximity to Disney, it's no wonder that broad-reaching anime series such as One Punch Man season three, SPY X FAMILY season three, and Dragon Ball Daima perform well, as there's likely co-viewing in households. Half of the line-up is from the fall, and eight are continuing series. This suggests that, at least in the U.S., Hulu is the platform of choice for fans who want to watch widespread, mainstream anime rather than more niche genres, since the platform doesn't carry many originals or exclusives in the U.S.. U.S.
2026 will see a unified Hulu and Disney+ app, fully integrating Hulu's library with the parent platform. However, anime veteran Vincent Imaoka doesn't foresee any major changes in anime licensing, as he previously shared that Disney had already been part of Hulu's anime title negotiations long before 2025. I asked him what he thinks will happen after the Disney+ and Hulu platforms merge. “It's just combining those two platforms, but you'll still be able to search Hulu content on there,” he responded.
Here's hoping that Disney will continue licensing more quality anime titles, investing in new content, and marketing those releases with the same promotional energy as Animayhem.
Top 10 Series on HIDIVE
Ending with the final platform, HIDIVE easily clears for programming anime series with the longest titles. Joking aside, it secured a deal to exclusively distribute Japan's Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS) line-up in 2023, adding more titles to its library. Last year, it added a modest dozen new titles to its catalogue, which were largely split between the Action and Comedy genres.
Because of its smaller library relative to competitors, HIDIVE's audience is likely to use it as a secondary account to watch series that aren't available on other platforms. Within its new releases, there's a more seasonal balance (considering its limited number of titles). Thus, it attracts an audience that specifically comes to HIDIVE for exclusives, as titles of broader appeal are already available elsewhere. I imagine the platform took a big hit when Crunchyroll announced it would stream the new season of Oshi no Ko, which marks a departure from HIDIVE's prior exclusivity at launch.
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