Which countries watch the most anime?

Have you ever been curious to know which countries watch the most anime in the world? A count of people and a share of each population answer that question in different orders.

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Countries Where Anime is Popular

If we determine the total number of people who watch anime in each country, China, India, and other countries with high populations will be at the top. It is not a fair comparison, so we should look at the values proportional to the population of each country.

A survey published by GEM Partners in May 2026 does that. The Global Anime White Paper, built from an online questionnaire by Interpret, asked about 15,000 people aged 13 to 65 in 15 countries. Nine of those countries are asked every year: Japan, the United States, China, India, South Korea, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Brazil. The published figure is the share of people who watch anime, collected each September and October from 2020 through 2025.

In the 2025 wave, Japan led with 55%, China followed with 42%, and India with 41%. The United States reached 22%, up from 10% in 2020, a compound rate of 17% a year. China and India are second and third on this measure. A raw headcount would favor them, because those shares sit on much larger populations than Japan's.

India's average annual growth is 30%, and South Korea's is 32%, ahead of the other seven. Let's see the 2020 and 2025 shares for all nine annual markets:

Country	Share in 2020	Share in 2025
Japan	31%	55%
China	22%	42%
India	11%	41%
South Korea	10%	38%
Brazil	17%	34%
United States	10%	22%
France	11%	22%
Germany	10%	16%
United Kingdom	7%	15%

Another survey can rank the same countries differently, because it asks a different question. Statista's Consumer Insights chart from November 2025 reports the share of respondents who watch anime on TV or by streaming. Japan is at 51%, Vietnam at 45%, Brazil at 36%, the Philippines at 35%, and Indonesia and Malaysia at 32% each. South Korea is at 28% and China at 27%. Statista left the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia off the graphic because those samples were smaller, even though the Philippines figure, 35%, sits above China's 27% on that chart.

Where People Watch

One way to check how far an anime travels is the dub, which lets a series reach people who will not watch with subtitles. After specialist streamers arrived, that country-by-country dub list became very hard to keep current. Crunchyroll and the big general platforms premiere dubbed seasons often enough that a ranking of which country dubs the most goes out of date quickly.

The 2026 survey asked which service people use. In seven of the nine annual markets, respondents put Netflix first for anime. Prime Video and YouTube also rank high in several of those countries. Crunchyroll places in the top 10 in every surveyed country outside Japan, China and South Korea. In India the order is Netflix, then Prime Video, then YouTube.

GEM also asked about spending. In all nine markets, more than 10% of the population spent money on anime-related products or services in the previous year. Among people who already watch, that share was 57% in Japan and 79% in India.

The Most Popular Anime in Each Country

The white paper also asks which titles people have watched, and the order changes with the country. Detective Conan, released abroad as Case Closed, ranked first in Japan, China and South Korea. In the Western markets in that summary, Pokémon, Dragon Ball and Naruto/Boruto lead.

Naruto and Boruto rank 15th in Japan and much higher in several countries outside it. In India, the most-watched five are Pokémon, Dragon Ball (excluding Dragon Ball Daima), Naruto/Boruto, Attack on Titan and One Piece. Dragon Ball Daima itself also drew a strong audience in India and in Brazil, beside the older series.

Of course, this is not the only way to rank a series. A list built from search interest, or from scores on MyAnimeList, measures attention and ratings. The white paper measures who says they have watched the title.

Among titles that debuted in 2020 or later, Jujutsu Kaisen is the only one in the top 10 in all nine countries.

These shares come from about 1,000 online answers per country. The annual nine are a fixed set, so a high result on another survey can belong to a country that never appears in this table. GEM asked who watches anime. Statista asked who watches it on TV or by streaming, so the two percentages describe different groups.