Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini unveils plans for global anime market growth
Korean webtoon Solo Leveling was among the most watched new shows on Crunchyroll in 2024
Sony-backed anime streaming platform Crunchyroll is looking to tap a global market of 1.5 billion anime enthusiasts as it expands its growing anime universe into a 360-degree experience for subscribers, according to president Rahul Purini.
The service, which was launched by anime fans as a niche passion project in 2006, now serves more than 15 million subscribers in over 200 countries and territories.
Purini described the service’s growth potential as enormous, given that around 1.5 billion people globally watch anime and/or consider themselves to be interested in anime, he said at a company presentation in London this week.
“I can confidently say that there’s never been a better time to be an anime fan than right now. We’re not just talking about stories or characters, but really about a movement. Anime has gone from being a subculture to a mainstream culture. It’s gone from being a cult following to a global phenomenon,” he told a roomful of journalists, content creators and fans.
Crunchyroll’s key markets include North America, Western Europe and Latin America, and is now also experiencing rapid growth in emerging markets like India, Brazil, Mexico and South-east Asia.
Over the last three years the service has more than doubled the number of new shows it releases, rising from 20 to 50-plus every quarter. It also claims to have the largest dedicated anime library in the world, featuring over 50,000 episodes and 25,000 hours of content.
One of the most watched new shows on Crunchyroll of 2024 was Solo Leveling, a Korean webtoon adapted into an anime series by Japanese prodco Aniplex and A-1 Pictures. A second season launched in Q1 2025 and remains a global hit.
“It’s not just about scale for us, it’s about curation. It’s about the authenticity and it’s about the experiences,” said Purini. New series on the service are simulcast within an hour of their original airing on TV channels in Japan. They are also localised into over 12 different languages, including English, German, French and Spanish, to make the service as accessible as possible to fans worldwide.
Highlighting fresh findings on the fast-growing market UK, Purini said it was now among its top 10 markets. Over the past year, UK subscribers streamed over 5.5 billion minutes of anime content, with Sundays the biggest anime day of the week, with close to 17% of all weekly viewing.
“The UK’s fandom is relatively nascent compared to other markets we’re in, with most fans having joined in the last three to five years,” said the exec. In addition, 48% of UK fans also watch their anime subtitled – more than anywhere else in the world, he added. “Since anime is rooted in Japan, localisation has always been key and we are investing in dubs and making anime feel right at home for our fans worldwide.”
Purini also highlighted Crunchyroll’s growth beyond its streaming service origins into a “lifestyle and a purpose-built platform for fans.” Experiences range from gaming via its Game Vault, available free to subscribers, such as upcoming theatrical release Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle, music, collectibles and events, as well as immersive experiences at events like UK Comic Con in London and Japan Expo in Paris.
Crunchyroll is also mining the Sony ecosystem across PlayStation, Sony Music and Sony Pictures, and earlier this year unveiled its first collaboration to turn the popular PlayStation game Ghost of Tsushima into an anime series with Aniplex and Sony Music. The series will arrive in 2027.
In order to expand its content pipeline, Crunchyroll is also dipping its toes into coproduction waters ,“so that stories like Solo Leveling can be developed hand-in-hand with partners,” said Purini.
