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Crunchyroll Anime Service Tops 1 Million Paid Subscribers

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L

LordOfLore

Banned
Link.

Crunchyroll, the anime and manga entertainment site owned by AT&T-Chernin Group’s Otter Media, said it now has more than 1 million paid subscribers and over 20 million registered users.

That suggests San Francisco-based Crunchyroll is generating at least $83 million in subscription revenue, given that its plans start at $6.95 per month. While that’s just 1% of Netflix’s yearly haul — the streaming giant posted 2016 revenue of $8.8 billion — Crunchyroll execs have pointed to its fanbase’s high engagement rates and loyalty.

Crunchyroll claimed it saw a 36% increase in paid subscribers last year, a record for the 10-year-old company. Users currently stream more than 1.5 billion minutes of video per month, with a per-user average of about 30 minutes per day. (Analysts estimate that Netflix users watch nearly two hours of video daily.)

Now Crunchyroll is expanding into the in-real-life business: The company on Thursday announced plans for the first Crunchyroll Expo, an anime convention to be held on Aug. 25-27, 2017, in Santa Clara, Calif. The event will feature a mix of speakers, vendors, and in-person activations spanning anime, manga, video games, and Asian entertainment.

In the U.S., Crunchyroll says it’s the largest home for anime content with over 800 titles. Those include shows like “Attack on Titan” (pictured above), “Naruto Shippuden” and “One Piece.” The company also last fall entered into a cross-licensing deal with Funimation, another big U.S.-based digital anime provider, bringing additional series to Crunchyroll.

“The past year hasn’t just been big for Crunchyroll, it was huge for anime itself,” said Kun Gao, co-founder and GM of Crunchyroll. He said hit shows like “Yuri!!! on Ice” are breaking through to mainstream audiences, and that anime is being used in other creative domains (as in the music video “Shelter” from DJ Porter Robinson).

To mark the million-subscriber mark, Crunchyroll will be offering the chance to win free daily prizes from partners including Loot Crate, Fandango and Microsoft during the week of Feb. 13. Paying subs also can enter to win an entertainment bundle (which includes a 4K Ultra HDTV, gaming console and streaming device) and an all-expenses-paid trip to Japan for two.
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Keep me from Jojo if old.
 
C

Chezzymann

Member
It's probably a lot more cause people share single accounts across multiple devices. One of my friends friends is sharing his crunchy roll account with like 16 people
 
F

Frostinferno

Member
Funny, I was just thinking earlier if I should sub to catch up on things I've missed the past few years.

How are people liking CR these days?
 
P

PeakPointMatrix

Member
Glad we're finally out of the dark ages in terms of anime availability. Unless you were okay watching dubs on Cartoon Network with a cable subscription, your only other options back in the day were buying 5 episode sets that were $30-$50 each, or simply pirating. I'm glad the subscription service has paid off.
 
F

Fox318

Member
I love it.

Its fantastic that they get the episodes up as fast as they do and it works on every platform.

I'm sure for some people it completely eliminated the need for piracy and searching for fans subs.

Plus its actually affordable and allows you to dip your toe in to see an episode instead of buying a full dvd set for a stupid amount of money.

Only bad thing about the service is its made me allergic to dubs.
 
G

Gentleman Jack

Member
Too bad they fired their core staff, or all this sub money could go towards a halfway decent player, manga selection, website and mobile app. :p
 
M

Magus1234

Member
So I just went there to see the list of shows of what people are watching. Besides those shows that have been running for like 10 years, I think every cover has some teenage girl in a skirt on the cover. Sad!
 
P

plentyofmilhouse

Member
I'm glad the model is working. We might only watch one new show each season on Crunchyroll and it still feels like great value for such quality and convenience.

Just wish they'd hook us up with Dragon Ball Super here.
 
Tizoc

Tizoc

Member
fOR THOse that have Chrome, I recommend using Crunchy Unblocker extension so that all series are available to you, since for some reason my region is OK with naruto but not ok with One piece...
 
B

Busty

Banned
Wow. Impressive.

I under what will happen to this when AT&T merge with Time Warner? Could this be folded into a larger slate of streaming services? Hmmm.
 
G

Galang

Banned
I'm glad for them. Going from 50 bucks for 3 episodes to less than 10 for a whole lot more content is an amazing value. I hope people will support streaming services over pirating them
 
Kite

Kite

Member
Toki767 said:
Honestly a little surprised they only have a million subscribers.
Click to expand...
I'm not, anime fans tend to skew young aka kids with no disposable income and it is very easy to find free pirated streams. I've been meaning to get back into watching the latest shows after burning out on WoW and Overwatch so I guess I'll sub, 1 mil + 1 in a few min.
 
W

wildfire

Banned
That doesn't really seem all that impressive considering how big the industry is.


I think if Crunchyroll and Funimation is ever to grow in a meanigful way they both have to figure out how to raise awareness of anime people would be interested in watching.

Netflix grew to prominence in large part due to their sophisticated suggestion algorithms.

I myself would love to watch more anime but a lot of times it takes a source I respect combined with a video collage to get me interested than a DVD cover.
 
A

Aaronrules380

Member
wildfire said:
That doesn't really seem all that impressive considering how big the industry is.


I think if Crunchyroll and Funimation is ever to grow in a meanigful way they both have to figure out how to raise awareness of anime people would be interested in watching.

Netflix grew to prominence in large part due to their sophisticated suggestion algorithms.

I myself would love to watch more anime but a lot of times it takes a source I respect combined with a video collage to get me interested than a DVD cover.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind people toss out free passes like candy and this is only paid subscribers (And the vast majority of content is free)
 
E

ElMexiMerican

Member
I wonder if that includes those who sub through VRV. I imagine that number isn't very large right now, however I bet that'll slowly start to gain traction once the web player is put up.
 
M

meltingparappa

Member
wildfire said:
That doesn't really seem all that impressive considering how big the industry is.


I think if Crunchyroll and Funimation is ever to grow in a meanigful way they both have to figure out how to raise awareness of anime people would be interested in watching.

Netflix grew to prominence in large part due to their sophisticated suggestion algorithms.

I myself would love to watch more anime but a lot of times it takes a source I respect combined with a video collage to get me interested than a DVD cover.
Click to expand...
That always felt like the single most important feature that the site needs. They have a REALLY great set of personalities trying to foster a community, but that's too deep in the well for normal people with an inquisitive weekend pass to follow.

By all informal accounts though, it seems like the upper management of crunchyroll doesn't quite get how continued growth of a niche product relies on far more than just scooping up a limited handful of people who would rather watch paid anime without the hassle or dubious ethics of kissanime.
 
B

Breads

Banned
More and more anime is being made that I can enjoy as an adult.

This pleases me greatly. Not sure why they had to fire so many people though.

Toki767 said:
Honestly a little surprised they only have a million subscribers.
Click to expand...

Like Hulu you can watch their free portion with ads and for newer shows on a week late release schedule.
 
A

Apzu

Member
Is it 1 million worldwide or just US?

Anyway, I'm glad they are getting more and more subscribers. The layoff is not something I'd say I'm happy with, but they are one of the few streaming services not region-locked to south america so I can only hope they get better, because there's just no other legal alternative.
 
H

Hypron

Member
Streaming is pretty much the only legal way to watch a decent amount of anime without being rich so I'm not too surprised CR is successful.
 
K

KillerMan91

Member
Considering how:
A) You can use Crunchy for free if you can wait a week (and are fine with non-HD quality)
B) Pirating is actually easier than ever thanks to streaming sites like Crunchy as you can find rips of Crunchy episodes immediately after they air. In the past you had to wait for fansubbers to do the work and sometimes it took days
C) Biggest demographics for anime still are kids and teens who just pirate everything as they don't have too much spendable money (or use free streaming)

I think 1 million paying customers is pretty good achievement.
 
J

JeremyEtcetera

Unconfirmed Member
meltingparappa said:
That always felt like the single most important feature that the site needs. They have a REALLY great set of personalities trying to foster a community, but that's too deep in the well for normal people with an inquisitive weekend pass to follow.

By all informal accounts though, it seems like the upper management of crunchyroll doesn't quite get how continued growth of a niche product relies on far more than just scooping up a limited handful of people who would rather watch paid anime without the hassle or dubious ethics of kissanime.
Click to expand...

This is also a problem of what they advertise when visiting their website. Aside from Dragonball, Naruto, and One Piece being front and center, when you go beyond that they mainly advertise shows that are slice of life/romantic based, very chibi, and also shows that are almost ecchi in nature. I understand this anime exists but you can't shove it in the face of western fans and expect them to not reel back a bit. Compare this to how funimation markets their titles and the front page of their website(showing current shows that are more serious/action based along with 80s and 90s classics like DBZ and Bebop), which is how Crunchyroll should go about it.

Edit: They also need to get people to understand why supporting the official release is a big deal.
 
T

TheFlow

Banned
There service is awesome and even though Hulu has a lot of anime including current I still prefer the way crunchy roll does subs.

Wish they would add all the gundam for stream. I know daisuki has turn a, wing, seed, and OO but a man Neeeds more U.C
 
G

gdt

Member
I'm watching Hunter X Hunter right now (it's great) so I need to start watching the rest on Crunchyroll (Netflix only has up to season 5). I wish CR had Netflix's download feature. Its a godsend really. It lets me easily watch episodes at work in my office no problem.

Dunno if I need a sub though. I'm not super into anime these days.

Edit: and Netflix and Hulu's anime libraries put together is probably enough for me really. And I wish Hulu did downloads as well.
 
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