One Piece & Naruto Lead Netflix Anime Despite Drop in Watch Time

The explosive "anime boom" of the early 2020s appears to have officially reached a plateau. According to Netflix’s latest "What We Watched" engagement report, the streaming giant saw a significant slowdown in anime viewership during the second half of 2025. While the genre remains a massive pillar for the platform, the data reveals a growing user fatigue and a heavy reliance on a few legendary franchises rather than new, experimental hits. The year-end figures tell a story of two halves. Overall, anime fans watched over 8 billion hours of content across the full year of 2025, marking a 10.6% increase compared to 2024. 

However, that growth was fueled entirely by a massive surge in the first six months. By the second half of the year, momentum plummeted by 12.7%, with viewership falling from 4.4B hours to 3.84B. This dip suggests that the industry's rapid upward climb is stalling as the anime bubble begins to thin, as reported by CBR. 

Rather than flocking to fresh stories, audiences are retreating to the comfort of "mainstream juggernauts." The Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba franchise dominated the latter half of 2025, amassing over 320.4M watch hours when including the Mugen Train film. This single franchise accounted for more than 8% of all anime watch time on the platform. Other legacy titans like Naruto, One Piece, The Seven Deadly Sins, and Hunter x Hunter collectively drove over 25% of total engagement.

Legacy Hits and Mainstream Juggernauts Squeeze Out New Titles

Even among these heavyweights, the trend was downward. One Piece saw its watch hours drop from 399.7M to 354.3M, a decline of roughly 11.4%. Pokémon also took a hit, falling 13.2% to 193.5M hours. The Seven Deadly Sins experienced an even sharper decline of 28.2%. In contrast, Demon Slayer was the outlier, seeing a staggering 135.8% increase in views, likely sparked by the theatrical buzz surrounding the Infinity Castle movie.

The report highlights a concerning gap between established hits and new releases. New titles made up only 20% of total anime engagement, and user "follows" for fresh series have dropped by up to 50% in some cases. While The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity emerged as a breakout success with 57.6M hours watched, other exclusives struggled to find a footing.

For instance, the highly anticipated The Summer Hikaru Died pulled in just 5.3M views, while Ranma 1/2 Season 2 saw a modest 3.7M views. Surprisingly, even the widely criticized third season of One-Punch Man outpaced these exclusives with 6.1M views, proving that brand recognition often trumps "new and experimental" content in the eyes of the casual viewer.

The reliance on sublicensed giants, many of which aren't even available globally, could threaten the diversity of future productions. Streaming fees are a primary source of funding for animation studios; if fans only tune in for safe bets, studios may become hesitant to greenlight mid-tier or experimental projects. 

Looking toward 2026, Netflix is attempting to stabilize its lineup through a massive strategic partnership with Studio MAPPA and new projects from Kyoto Animation. However, the immediate future remains uncertain. The Winter 2026 slate leans heavily on non-exclusives like Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Season 2. As the era of unchecked growth ends, Netflix faces the difficult challenge of proving that anime is more than just a handful of aging franchises.