Japanese anime’s U.S. audience has grown substantially: a 2026 GEM Partners survey found that 22% of respondents in the United States watched anime in 2025, compared with 10% in 2020. Nielsen, measuring a different thing, counted more than 45 billion minutes of anime streamed in the U.S. during 2025. Together, these figures show anime has become a major part of American entertainment consumption, though they do not by themselves measure its causal effect on U.S. culture.
How many people in the U.S. watch anime?
GEM Partners’ Anime Global White Paper 2026 reports that 22% of U.S. respondents watched anime in 2025, up from 10% in 2020. The findings come from online surveys conducted by Interpret and aggregated by GEM Partners. In the nine core markets tracked annually, surveys covered people aged 13–65, with about 1,000 respondents per country each September–October.
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This is a survey-based share, not a count of unique viewers, monthly viewers, or streaming accounts. The result supports a clear conclusion—anime viewing has expanded in the U.S.—but should not be read as a precise census of everyone who watches anime.
How much anime do Americans stream?
Nielsen reports that more than 45 billion minutes of anime content were streamed in the U.S. in 2025. That is a measure of viewing volume, not the number of people watching. It complements GEM Partners’ survey result, but the two figures cannot be directly compared: one estimates the share of surveyed people who watched anime, while the other totals streaming minutes.
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Nielsen describes anime as having “a diverse audience behind it” and as “a powerful cultural and economic force.” Those are Nielsen’s characterizations of the category; the streaming total does not quantify a causal cultural effect.
Which streaming services are associated with anime viewing?
GEM Partners found that Netflix was the top named anime-viewing service in seven of its nine core markets. Prime Video and YouTube also ranked highly across multiple markets. Crunchyroll appeared in the top ten in surveyed countries outside Japan, China, and South Korea.
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The published summary does not give a U.S.-only platform ranking, so these multi-country findings do not establish which service leads anime viewing in the United States. Nor do they establish current catalog availability for a particular title.
How does anime reach audiences beyond animation?
Live-action adaptations
Netflix’s live-action One Piece offers a measurable example of an anime- and manga-associated property crossing into another format. Nielsen reports 1.3 billion viewing minutes for the first season in its opening week and 1.6 billion minutes during the second season’s premiere week. These figures show substantial reach for the adaptation; they do not tell us how many viewers were anime fans or prove that anime viewing caused the adaptation’s success.
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Nielsen connects anime’s reach with interest in other Asian culture programming, citing titles including Alice in Borderland, KPop Demon Hunters, and Squid Game. This is an interpretation of audience trends, not proof that anime caused U.S. audiences to watch those titles or changed American culture in a specific, measurable way.
What does anime’s commercial footprint look like?
The Association of Japanese Animations’ Anime Industry Report 2024 puts the broad Japanese anime market in 2023 at 3.3465 trillion yen, up 14.3% from the previous year. Its accounting includes overseas activity, merchandise, and internet distribution:
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| Measure | 2023 figure | What it represents |
|---|---|---|
| Broad Japanese anime market | 3.3465 trillion yen | Industry-wide market accounting, not U.S. sales |
| Overseas activity | 1.7222 trillion yen | International segment in the report’s market accounting |
| Merchandising | 700.8 billion yen | Merchandise category in the broad market |
| Internet distribution | 250.1 billion yen | Internet distribution category in the broad market |
The association attributes 60.9% of the 2023 market’s growth to the international segment and identifies the international and streaming markets as leading growth factors. These are Japanese industry figures, not U.S.-specific totals, and the reported revenue does not necessarily accrue entirely to animation studios; returns can be concentrated among rights holders and major studios depending on the category.
Consumer spending is visible in GEM Partners’ survey as well: more than 10% of respondents in each of its nine core markets reported spending on anime-related products or services in the prior year. The accessible summary does not state the U.S.-specific percentage, so this should not be treated as a U.S. spending estimate.
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What can—and can’t—be concluded about anime’s impact?
The evidence points to a growing U.S. audience, extensive streaming, and commercial activity that includes merchandise, distribution, and adaptations. It also shows how Japanese anime properties can travel into mainstream global entertainment. But audience growth, viewing totals, and the success of an adaptation do not isolate anime’s causal influence on American culture. The available figures describe reach and related business activity more clearly than they explain why viewers watch or how anime changes U.S. tastes, behavior, or creative industries.
A July 2024 JETRO report specifically examines the U.S. market for anime, manga, character intellectual property, and related goods and services, excluding games. Its landing page describes interviews with major local players and links a 43-page report, but does not provide detailed findings from which to state a U.S. market size here.
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