By Mark Seavy

Since combining with Funimation, Sony’s Crunchyroll has had a strong run as the largest dedicated anime streaming service. But, in recent months, the company (which has 21 million subscribers) has faced challenges from multiple competitors.

Netflix, for example, recently released trailers for several series, including Blue Eye Samurai (January 2027), Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 (October 2026), The One Piece (February 2027), and others.

Meanwhile, Disney+ landed an agreement with Pokémon to release the first stop-motion animation Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d & Pichu in 2027 under an agreement with production company Aardman Studios (home to Wallace and Gromit). The pact, which was unveiled August 28 at the Pokémon XP fanfest in San Francisco, was a deal Aardman had hinted at in 2024 when the company said it was developing a “special project.” At the time, it was speculated that Netflix was the streaming service, but the new agreement demonstrated Disney’s deepening investment in anime.

Additionally, Disney’s XD cable channel (which launched in 2009 as a replacement for Disney Toon) had been home to Pokémon content for several years before Netflix gained the streaming rights in 2020 with the release of Pokémon Journeys. The first title released under the new Disney-Pokémon agreement is Pokémon the Series: The Beginning, which collects Ash Ketchum and Pikachu’s original 1997-98 series. It began airing on Disney XD earlier this month and is now also available on Disney+ in the U.S. and select international markets.

Another major competitor for the attention of anime fans is the free streaming app Bilibili. A massive video platform in China, Bilibili is pushing its international anime streaming service into more major markets and the company unveiled a slate of content, including the donghua (anime) adaptions of Heaven’s Official Blessing and Tomb Raider King, at the Anime Expo in Los Angeles, CA in July. Bilibili, which relaunched its previously discontinued international app, is readying an English-language website and will target viewers across the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Bilibili has more than 340 million monthly active users extending across gaming, anime, music, and lifestyle, and 70% of viewers are under 30 years old.

“Businesses are very much interested in anime,” said Emilie Waggoner, a lecturer at the University of Colorado Denver who researches anime’s impact on society. “Anime has an incredibly loyal following, and this presents an opportunity for businesses, especially when anime intersects with another fan base, like sports. It is having a unique flywheel effect in which a hit show doesn’t just generate ad revenue or subscriptions—it powers toy sales, mobile game downloads, movie spin-offs, and global licensing deals.”

That loyal following has resulted in a steady stream of content that, in addition to being popular, has also raised concerns about the market reaching saturation.

Toei Animation’s One Piece has released 1,174 episodes since it made the shift to anime from manga in 1999. The property brought in even more fans when a live-action series inspired debuted on Netflix in 2023. It will get the LEGO treatment on Netflix in a two-part animated series on September 29 that ties back to the live-action adaption. Additionally, there are two movies ahead with One Piece Film: God Valley (2027) and One Piece Film: Badd (2029), bringing the franchise to 16 films. And Wit Studio’s updated retelling of the original One Piece story is due February 2027 with seven episodes covering 50 chapters of manga. One Piece was first published as manga in 1997.

In the face of this content onslaught, Toei Animation reduced the animated One Piece production to 26 episodes annually, with episodes being released in two, 13-episode segments. It also took a production break earlier this year between January and March.

“Content competition is fierce. Disney+ and Crunchyroll are also ramping up their efforts, so producing high‑quality anime can be costly and squeeze margins,” said Enrico Caschetta, an analyst at Cloudia Research. “Overreliance on anime could damage the platform’s diversity. Also, saturation risk and regulation in new markets loom.”

Yet even with concerns about saturation, new and rereleased content continues to arrive.

Studio Ghibli, for example, releasing a remastered 4K version of  Whisper of the Heart in IMAX theaters in the U.K. and Ireland on September 16. Whisper of the Heart was first released in manga in 1989 before moving to anime in 1995.

Sony, meanwhile, acquired a 10% stake in manga publisher Kadokawa. Under the agreement, Sony’s Aniplex division formed a joint venture with Kodokawa to distribute anime theatrical films, including those based on the latter’s novels and games. Aniplex and Crunchyroll are also producing a theatrical film, Solo Leveling: Beyond the System, based on the anime series. And Netflix will release an anime adaption of Kasumi Yasuda’s Fool Night manga on November 26.

“Anime is one of the pillars supporting our creative entertainment vision and we are working with creators and partner companies to further grow the business across the Sony Group,” Sony CFO Lin Tao said.