More and more, we're hearing that anime is breaking out of its niche and stepping into a wider audience, and it seems the statistics are backing this up. In 2024, Japan's anime industry reached an all-time high of JPY 3.84 trillion, which is equivalent to around $25 billion USD.
This comes from market data presented by the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) at the Tokyo International Film Festival (via Variety). Year-on-year, we see that local earnings to the anime industry rose 2.8%, but overseas revenues had a much bigger increase at 26%. As we've seen big anime hits at the box office in 2025, like the new Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man movies, we could see this number continue to rise when we're looking at the data again this time next year.
The report's editor-in-chief at the AJA, Masahiko Hasegawa, says the gap between the Japanese and overseas markets will only continue to increase. "The overseas market now far exceeds local revenues, and the gap will only widen," he said. "Growth today includes bundled contracts that span theatrical, streaming, merchandising, and event rights — not just content distribution."
Japan's government has used anime alongside games, manga, and other media as a core industry, and wants to see overseas content triple in sales by 2033.