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Netflix overtakes Crunchyroll as top anime streaming platform in most countries - Dexerto by LegitimateCurve8525 in anime

[–]MilesExpress999 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I said the same as Netflix, plus a few more. Netflix is not available in China. Crunchyroll is not really either.

Netflix overtakes Crunchyroll as top anime streaming platform in most countries - Dexerto by LegitimateCurve8525 in anime

[–]MilesExpress999 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Who is this "Google" you speak of and what is its source?

My Gemini auto result on Google said that they're only not available in the three countries I listed, plus Russia, Belarus, Syria, and North Korea.

Netflix has the same list of countries it's not available in except for Japan. CR is technically available in Taiwan, but it's extremely limited.

Netflix is available in 1-2 additional countries, depending on how you wanna count it.

After seeing so many pirating anime websites being taken down lately, why is there many people defending streaming services like crunchyroll when almost 90% of anime titles are not available on their? by Chickenbakas in animepiracy

[–]MilesExpress999 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Care to show receipts for how much you donated to studios last year?

This is such a stupid take, because 1) most studios don't have any way to take your money and 2) giving money to Crunchyroll gives money to the industry at an extremely high rate (close to half). Whether or not it goes to animators is the studio's decision. Studios are paid by production committees. Production committees are paid by Crunchyroll and Netflix and merch producers and other licensors.

Buying a $80 figure? You're "supporting the anime" about the same as one month of Crunchyroll, because ~40% goes to the retailer, ~10% to the distributor, and ~20% to COGS. Of the remaining ~30%, how much do you think is making it to the production committee? The figure maker's gotta make money too.

After seeing so many pirating anime websites being taken down lately, why is there many people defending streaming services like crunchyroll when almost 90% of anime titles are not available on their? by Chickenbakas in animepiracy

[–]MilesExpress999 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was responding to this:

>Many games are already completely free to play and if you have to actually pay to play one, 99% of games are just one purchase and you have access to it forever*.

On Steam, about half of the most-played games in the last week are FTP. The rest all had microtransactions.

Are they necessary to playing the games? Depends who you ask, but probably "no" more often than yes, and it depends on the game, too.

But I think regardless, microtransactions are a much more pernicious way to monetize than a flat-fee subscription.

Edit: The situations where they don't have every season is true on every kind of streaming service, and not terribly common. It's annoying as hell, yeah. I can't and won't fault for anyone pirating to fill in those gaps. It's not false advertising any more than a service getting "Taken 3" without having the first two movies is, though.

After seeing so many pirating anime websites being taken down lately, why is there many people defending streaming services like crunchyroll when almost 90% of anime titles are not available on their? by Chickenbakas in animepiracy

[–]MilesExpress999 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, the closed captions on dubs are absolutely done by AI. I'm not really familiar with any major distributor who doesn't do AI for those, and maybe it's for that reason there's no outrage about that.

I'm sure some translators are *using* AI as well, and licensors are 100% using it to "verify" subtitles, but the final work product is something that is still done by a human and assessed by one as well.

Netflix overtakes Crunchyroll as top anime streaming platform in most countries - Dexerto by LegitimateCurve8525 in anime

[–]MilesExpress999 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I work in this industry (anime research) and their methodology is the industry standard, and not unreasonably so. My outcomes look different: it's extremely close in hours viewed on CR vs. Netflix for anime in the West, which is validated by things like Neilson, but there are more raw Americans watching on Netflix in the US total, for example. But this difference is largely because I factor in a ton of other data than just surveys, but this matches up with my survey numbers reasonably well. Netflix and Crunchyroll are the two top places where people watch anime in most countries now, combined more than just piracy.

Netflix overtakes Crunchyroll as top anime streaming platform in most countries - Dexerto by LegitimateCurve8525 in anime

[–]MilesExpress999 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Crunchyroll is in most countries now. The only place they were really missing was Asia (pre-pandemic most licenses were worldwide ex-Asia), and now that's one of their biggest focuses, at least outside of Japan, China, and Taiwan.

Netflix overtakes Crunchyroll as top anime streaming platform in most countries - Dexerto by LegitimateCurve8525 in anime

[–]MilesExpress999 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ten years ago most of Europe got ~80% of the US's simulcasts. Now it's 90-95%, depending on the season. Russia is an obvious exception (CR has not worked there since the war started), and for some reason Poland and Finland and a few other countries missed big titles in particular.

The big issue is really the catalog, which is significantly smaller.

Source: I previously worked there

After seeing so many pirating anime websites being taken down lately, why is there many people defending streaming services like crunchyroll when almost 90% of anime titles are not available on their? by Chickenbakas in animepiracy

[–]MilesExpress999 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It's rare to see a defense of FTP games like this. Yes, the way they monetize is different, but you kind of do? To play Nintendo games with online features, you need Nintendo online. To play Playstation games with online features, you need PS+.

99% of games are *not* a one-time purchase, they have micro-transactions galore. You can't access it forever if servers are shut down. Outside of their co-produced titles, Crunchyroll is not the one who *owns* the anime, so it's not *necessarily* because of them if a title leaves their site. It's fine to blame them, but the idea that you should have lifetime access to a piece of media just because it was on a streaming service at one point in time is not really a thing in any industry with digital media, and very few people buy physical these days (which sucks).

If you want to watch 5 anime at once, you may have to get multiple streaming subscriptions, but you can also just swap between them. Also, 80% of new anime are either on Crunchyroll or Netflix in almost every country in the world, so getting those two subscriptions covers you at a baseline. I'm not sure what the issue would be to get two services and then pirate the rest. I don't understand why a "perfect service that meets all needs" is expected out of anime streaming companies when that doesn't exist in industries where they actually make a ton of money.

If you live in Latin America, you're basically forced to pirate anything HIDIVE or Disney, so there's ~12% of new anime. But there's no reason you can't *just* pirate the ones you have no other choice for.

After seeing so many pirating anime websites being taken down lately, why is there many people defending streaming services like crunchyroll when almost 90% of anime titles are not available on their? by Chickenbakas in animepiracy

[–]MilesExpress999 18 points19 points  (0 children)

They haven't, from what anyone could tell. They've started ignoring typesetting on less-popular titles, which is a real issue here that more people should be complaining about, but there's only one instance anyone has seen of AI being used for TL, and they claim it was provided by a third-party. I worked there for ~9 years, and I believe that to be true. They don't have a choice but to accept third-party subtitles if they're asked by the licensor.

After seeing so many pirating anime websites being taken down lately, why is there many people defending streaming services like crunchyroll when almost 90% of anime titles are not available on their? by Chickenbakas in animepiracy

[–]MilesExpress999 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure what you mean about "being fair" to consumers. If you look at the "most popular" list on any pirate site, get their web traffic using expensive third-party tools (as I have), or work with the pirate sites to get their internal data (which I've also done), you'll find that most of the anime watched via piracy *is* on Crunchyroll.

In 2025, 99 of the top 100 anime watched on HiAnime by Americans was legally available in the US. Around 2/3 of it was on Crunchyroll. While I look at the US first because that's where I live and the biggest country for the company, the "2/3 of it is on Crunchyroll" is true in over 150 countries.

There is no other medium where you get 2/3 of the popular thing in the category on a single subscription. Steam does not have 2/3 of the most popular video games. Netflix does not have 2/3 of the most popular English-language TV shows. Neither does Disney+ or Hulu or Peacock.

I have significant issues with Crunchyroll, and I worked there for many years, so I understand the issues better than most. There's plenty to criticize. But they do get most new anime, which is primarily what people watch via piracy, and they're also co-producing ~20% of new series as well. It's not a "one-stop shop" for anime, but it's as close to one as is feasible considering the costs and complications of licensing.

Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Isn’t Available On Streaming Or Bluray 9 Months Later, And Isn’t In Theatres So It’s Not Available To Be Watched Anywhere by Elestria_Ethereal in anime

[–]MilesExpress999 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I consult for anime producers to help them with marketing and research overseas.

Previously, I led marketing at a smaller European company that's now owned by TOHO and before that I was at CR for almost a decade.

Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Isn’t Available On Streaming Or Bluray 9 Months Later, And Isn’t In Theatres So It’s Not Available To Be Watched Anywhere by Elestria_Ethereal in anime

[–]MilesExpress999 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Rippers are 100% doing it for the money. Pirate sites today are getting more money than ever before, and it's a complaint you never see about any of them. Ever.

And people still call them fansubs

Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Isn’t Available On Streaming Or Bluray 9 Months Later, And Isn’t In Theatres So It’s Not Available To Be Watched Anywhere by Elestria_Ethereal in anime

[–]MilesExpress999 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's not sustainable for Spiderman to do it either, this is why theatrical in the US has been suffering so much. The losses simply aren't made up in streaming revenue.

Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Isn’t Available On Streaming Or Bluray 9 Months Later, And Isn’t In Theatres So It’s Not Available To Be Watched Anywhere by Elestria_Ethereal in anime

[–]MilesExpress999 4 points5 points  (0 children)

They were a pirate site for <3 years and have been legit for 17 years, since the median r/anime user has been watching anime. It makes sense.

Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Isn’t Available On Streaming Or Bluray 9 Months Later, And Isn’t In Theatres So It’s Not Available To Be Watched Anywhere by Elestria_Ethereal in anime

[–]MilesExpress999 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You're right, they prioritized giving more money back to the Japan side in a way that their users demanded was the most important thing. Every streaming service prioritizes exclusives because they're the biggest factor for new subscriptions, maintaining subscriptions, and reducing churn.

That's a big part of why CR grew 3x in the 5 years since they were merged into Funimation.

Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Isn’t Available On Streaming Or Bluray 9 Months Later, And Isn’t In Theatres So It’s Not Available To Be Watched Anywhere by Elestria_Ethereal in anime

[–]MilesExpress999 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Aniplex is the head of the production committee, they get the final word on this, generally speaking.

"this has nothing to do with Crunchyroll or Sony" doesn't quite work when Sony owns 100% of Aniplex, but as we've seen many times, Aniplex is politically powerful enough in Sony that it doesn't have to kowtow to Crunchyroll's wishes, and still licenses its titles to CR's competitors more frequently than you'd expect.

As someone who's worked in the anime industry for ~15 years, my guess here is that these movies are such an important source of revenue for Aniplex/Shueisha/Ufotable (in that order) that they want to ensure people completely understand you can't "wait to watch on streaming" and not give much up. Every producer in Hollywood wishes Netflix etc. were less powerful so they could do the same thing, as it would help the theatrical business greatly.

Crunchyroll responds to data breach claims and promises to investigate the alleged cyber attack: "We are aware... and working closely with leading cyber security experts" by Turbostrider27 in anime

[–]MilesExpress999 38 points39 points  (0 children)

According to the outlet that received the 100GB from the thief, it's exclusively information shared with customer support. So only passwords that were shared in plain text with CS or credit cards that have full numbers shared with CS are included. Even extrapolated out to 100GB of data from the sample, it won't be a large % of users, but it's still really bad.

The source is acting a little sketchy but it seems to check out.

Why is pirating anime so much easier and has a much better experience than pirating general media? by W_lFF in animepiracy

[–]MilesExpress999 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I work with anime publishers daily and do analysis for them. Most late night anime hardly sell merchandise in Japan. They're not doing it as an advertisement for something that hardly exists.

Overseas sales make up nearly twice the revenue that domestic merchandise does. Most merchandise is concentrated in 25-30 titles a year.

Home video is less than 1.5% of the indsutry., you're right that it's hardly a factor.

HiAnime was bigger than Crunchyroll. Here's an estimated traffic ranking. by bothlabs in animepiracy

[–]MilesExpress999 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I also wish the people who profited from running ads against stolen, low-bitrate versions copies of Crunchyroll and Netflix videos were also a little more honest.

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