Considering that anime hasn’t been traditionally enjoyed in Europe, it is quite interesting to see it growing within the market.
Between 2020 and 2024, Italy, Germany, Finland, UK, Poland, Spain, and France above the others have seen a 3% to 9% growth in exploitation. In fact, the number of available Japanese titles outside Japan has doubled over the past five year, from around 3000 to 6000 between 2019 and 2023.
A huge impact comes of course from the increasing use of devices such as smartphones and smart TVs, alongside tablets and computers, to access online content.
However, the total lack of local players delivering anime within Europe has brought global giants such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video as well as dedicated anime platforms such as Crunchyroll to be the main channels through which you can enjoy anime.
As enlightened in the report, two main events can be identified as hikes: the first one is the beginning of the global pandemic (Q1 2020), which significantly raised the level of broadcast content and home entertainment demand; the second is the premiere of the movie Evangelion (Q1 2021).
In general, the popularity score of Japanese anime by content age shows that the success of a large stock of content over 10 years is delivered by long-running shows such as Naruto, One Piece, and Pokémon. These shows are still enjoyed and watched regularly, also thanks to the driving effect offered by new adaptations of the franchises.
But what are the opportunities that can lead Japanese anime to grow further in the global market? Motohiko Ara e Orina Zhao who have illustrated the report, identify three key points.
The European market is going to drive the next boom of anime content around the world and lead giant platforms to supply their Japanese content to meet consumer demand.
Netflix is leveraging the growing popularity of Anime and animated content, not only by cooperating with Japanese studios and broadcasters but also by producing non-Japanese animation content that shares similar characteristics with Anime in terms of genre, format, and target audience.
Lastly, the two large Anime-focused services Crunchyroll and Funimation acquired by Sony respectively in 2021 and 2017 were formally merged in April 2024, with the latter being folded into an expanded Crunchyroll, creating a large opportunity for the further distribution and viewership of Anime outside Japan.
