Anime Industry Worth 2025: A Record ¥4.45 Trillion, and Who Gets Paid

The anime industry was worth a record 4.45 trillion yen (about US$28.2 billion) in 2025, the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) said on October 30, 2026. That is 15.8% more than in 2024 and the highest figure the industry group has ever reported. Fans outside Japan spent more than fans in Japan for the fourth time, and the gap keeps growing.

How Big Is the Anime Industry in 2025?

The anime industry is now a 4.45 trillion yen business, according to the AJA, the trade group led by Japan's anime production companies. Of that total, 1.91 trillion yen came from Japan and 2.54 trillion yen came from overseas. The overall market grew by 15.8%, the Japanese market by 14.1% and the overseas market by 17.2%.

This number is not what anime studios earn. The AJA counts everything people and companies spend on anime: TV, film, home video and streaming, plus merchandise, music, events, concerts and overseas licensing. It is the size of the whole anime economy, from a Blu-ray in Tokyo to a figure sold in Paris. To see how that money has grown, look at the last five years.

How Fast Has the Anime Industry Grown?

The anime industry has grown every year since 2021, and it is now worth about 1.6 times what it was four years ago. Here are the AJA totals, as each year's report announced them:

Year	Anime industry market	Change
2021	2.74 trillion yen	+13.3%
2022	2.93 trillion yen	+6.8%
2023	3.35 trillion yen	+14.3%
2024	3.84 trillion yen	+14.8%
2025	4.45 trillion yen	+15.8%

Each of the last three years set a new record, and 2025 had the fastest growth in the table. Most of the push in recent years came from outside Japan.

Why Is the Overseas Anime Market Bigger Than Japan's?

The overseas anime market is bigger than Japan's because streaming, film releases and merchandise now reach fans in almost every country at the same time as in Japan. 2025 was the fourth year in which overseas spending beat domestic spending, after 2020, 2023 and 2024. In 2024 the overseas side jumped 26.0% to 2.17 trillion yen while Japan grew 2.8% to 1.67 trillion yen. In 2025 both sides grew fast, but overseas still grew faster.

The Japanese government wants even more. Anime is part of its five-year plan to double overseas entertainment sales, from an estimated 10 trillion yen in 2028 to 20 trillion yen in 2033. The open question is whether the people who make anime see that money, which brings us to the studios.

How Much of the Anime Industry's Money Reaches Studios?

Only a small part of the anime industry's money reaches the studios that make the shows. The AJA tracks studio revenue separately: in 2024, anime production companies made 466.2 billion yen, 9.1% more than the year before. That is about 12% of the 3.84 trillion yen market that year. The rest goes to broadcasters, streamers, publishers, toy and merchandise makers, and the other members of each show's production committee.

There is some good news for studios. Revenue flowing back to production companies rose 8% in 2025, according to ANN's report of the AJA figures. Masahiro Hasegawa, editor-in-chief of the AJA report, said more production companies are now taking an ownership stake in their own shows, so they can take a share of the overseas income. Whether that reaches animators' paychecks is another matter. We looked at that in how much anime animators make in Japan.

Kairo's Take

Even with the anime industry reaching a record ¥4.45 trillion in 2025, production committees urgently need to start reinvesting those profits into animator compensation and workplace well-being. When it comes to AI, it's fine as a minor efficiency tool for repetitive tasks under strict human supervision, but hand-drawn key animation remains the undisputed soul of the craft. My main worry is that corporate executives, focused entirely on profit margins, simply won't care about preserving pure human artistry if generative tools prove faster and cheaper.

For more on where the money goes, read how anime studios make money, why anime studios are going bankrupt in a record boom and how anime uses AI in 2026, or browse all our industry news.

Sources: Anime News Network (2025 figures, TIFFCOM presentation, studio revenue, Masahiro Hasegawa, government plan, December report), Anime News Network (2021), gamebiz (2022), Anime Hack (2023), gamebiz (2024 market and studio revenue). Cover photo: Akihabara, Tokyo, by Aimaimyi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped.