Netflix’s latest engagement report has revealed a dip in anime consumption during the second half of 2025, challenging the service’s narrative of anime growth on the world’s biggest streaming platform.
Per Netflix’s What We Watched report, anime represented over 4% of all viewing on the platform during the final six months of 2025, accounting for 3.84 billion hours of watch time. While this figure remains substantial, it also represents a 12.7% decline from the approximately 4.4 billion hours recorded in the first half of 2025.
When looking at the entirety of 2025, the platform saw over 8 billion hours of anime watched — a 10.6% increase from the previous year — but this growth was primarily driven by the massive surge in the first half of the year. By the second half, numbers had returned to levels seen in late 2024, indicating that the industry’s rapid upward momentum has stalled.
Netflix Charts Reveal the Same Titles Dominating Anime Views
A split image featuring the anime Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Arc movie (front & center), and Howl’s Moving Castle and One Piece Film: RedImage by Yéred García
The top 10 franchises by number of views (including associated films) from July to December 2025 were:
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – 54.8 million views
- Naruto – 45.4 million views
- Studio Ghibli – 39.1 million views
- One Piece – 36.7 million views
- Pokémon – 33.3 million views
- Dandadan – 23.9 million views
- Record of Ragnarok – 19.1 million views
- The Seven Deadly Sins – 17.6 million views
- One-Punch Man – 15.4 million views
- My Hero Academia – 15.1 million views
During the second half of 2025, the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba franchise claimed the top spot, amassing over 52.4 million views and 315.8 million view hours for its episodic content alone. When the Mugen Train film is included, total engagement rose to 320.4 million hours, meaning the franchise accounted for more than 8% of all anime watch time on Netflix during this period.
Demon Slayer’s dominance was likely fueled by the theatrical excitement surrounding Infinity Castle movie’s record-breaking run in the second half of 2025. This is further supported by the fact that Hashira Training Arc became the most-viewed individual season in the franchise with 14.4 million views.
In the previous period, Naruto led the charts with a cumulative viewership of 51 million, combined with its sequel series, Boruto. While its numbers dipped in the latter half of 2025, the franchise remains a pillar for Netflix, bringing in 30.5 million views for the original series and Shippuden alone (excluding movies). When accounting for the entire franchise, including Boruto and films, the total reached 45.4 million views.
Similarly, Studio Ghibli movies collectively brought in the third-highest anime-related engagement with 39.1 million views, led by Spirited Away, followed by Howl’s Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies and Kiki’s Delivery Service. This is despite none of these titles being currently available on the platform for fans in either Japan or North America.
Netflix Anime Viewership Is Decreasing Even for Major Anime Titles
One Piece Luffy deep in his thoughtsImage via Toei Animation
In terms of viewing hours, One Piece reigned supreme, keeping users engaged for 354.3 million hours, narrowly beating out the Naruto franchise’s 346 million hours and Demon Slayer‘s 320.4 million hours. Pokémon came fourth, but it only clocked 193.5 million hours.
The top 10 anime franchises based on viewing hours were:
- One Piece – 354.3 million hours
- Naruto – 346 million hours
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – 320.4 million hours
- Pokémon – 193.5 million hours
- Hunter x Hunter – 127.9 million hours
- The Seven Deadly Sins – 121.3 million hours
- Black Clover – 119 million hours
- Dandadan – 118.6 million hours
- Record of Ragnarok – 114.3 million hours
- Sakamoto Days – 105.7 million hours
While the numbers are impressive, comparing these figures to the first half of 2025 reveals a notable downward trend across the board. One Piece saw its watch hours drop from 399.7 million to 354.3 million — a decline of approximately 11.4%. Pokémon also experienced a significant dip, falling 13.2% from its previous 222.9 million hours.
The Seven Deadly Sins and Hunter x Hunter followed suit, with the former dropping 28.2% from 169 million hours and the latter seeing a modest 1.8% decrease from 130.3 million hours. In contrast, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba experienced a rise from its previous 135.9 million hours, recording a staggering 135.8% increase.
Decreased Engagement Serves as a Reality Check for Anime Watchers in 2026
A happy Naruto in the backdrop of the Netflix logoImage by Yered Garcia
Looking ahead, the decline in engagement serves as a reality check for anime fans. Netflix’s main attractions for the Winter 2026 season are titles like Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Season 2, which are not exclusive to the platform (and not available at all for U.S. fans). Indeed, the streamer has licensed very few titles in January 2026 for release in North America, which could further diminish anime viewership numbers for the platform.
Another concerning trend in the report is engagement with new releases, which only made up approximately 20% of all anime viewership. While The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity (11.1 million views and 57.6 million hours) emerged as a breakout success, most newcomers struggled to stand out.
On the other hand, sublicensed heavyweights like Demon Slayer, Naruto and One Piece drove engagement despite not being available globally. These three franchises alone accounted for over 25% of anime watch hours on the platform. Even the widely criticized third season of One-Punch Man (6.1 million views) managed to outperform Netflix exclusives like The Summer Hikaru Died (5.3 million views) and Ranma 1/2 Season 2 (3.7 million views), despite all of them streaming together in the second half of 2025.
This reliance on mainstream juggernauts could have ripple effects that may ultimately realize the fear of the anime bubble bursting. Recent data shows that the number of users following new releases has plummeted by as much as 50% in certain cases. This drop could be an indication of user fatigue, leading to good content being overlooked in place of tried-and-true titles and other “safe” bets.
Streaming is becoming a vital cog in the anime industry, as the higher upfront fees paid by streaming platforms for exclusive and co-produced titles help cover production costs for studios. However, if the recent boom only serves to funnel more eyeballs toward mainstream series, the mid-tier and experimental ones that drive industry innovation could become financially unviable, leading to lesser productions being greenlit and more studios going belly up.
Netflix appears to be banking on a major strategic deal with MAPPA to secure more exclusive global content. However, if viewers continue to gravitate toward long-running legacy series rather than fresh IPs, the platform faces a difficult challenge in maintaining its anime dominance.
