In a saturated market where entertainment giants have fought a war of attrition over generalist streaming, Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) has executed a masterstroke. While its competitors invested billions in loss-making D2C (direct-to-consumer) platforms, Sony opted for a dual strategy: acting as the industry's "Arms Dealer" while simultaneously dominating a global niche with Crunchyroll.

Crunchyroll: From Fandom to the Anime Throne

Founded in 2006, Crunchyroll began in a legal gray area that quickly evolved into a legitimate subscription model by 2009. Its success does not lie in trying to "be everything to everyone," but in being everything to someone.

• Scalability and Figures: Following Sony's acquisition in 2021 ($1.175 billion) and the absorption of Funimation, the platform has seen explosive growth. As of March 2025, Crunchyroll reached 17 million paid subscribers and boasts over 120 million registered users.
• Value Proposition:Its leadership is built on simulcast (content available one hour after its Japanese premiere) and possessing the world's largest anime library with over 50,000 episodes.
• Model Evolution:In 2026, the platform completed its transition toward profitability, eliminating much of its free tier for new releases and encouraging paid conversions to sustain its own production costs (Crunchyroll Originals).

The Sony Strategy: The "Arms Dealer" and Vertical Integration?

a) First steps in the face of streaming
Sony Pictures faced the arrival of streaming from a different position than other traditional studios. While companies like Disney, Warner Bros, or NBCUniversal launched their own competing global OTT platforms (Disney+, Max, Peacock), Sony did not create its own major generalist service. Instead, it chose a hybrid strategy focused on licensing its titles to leading global platforms. This has taken shape through pay-window agreements with Netflix, whereby certain Sony films become available on streaming after their theatrical and transactional VOD runs, before moving to other services such as Disney in subsequent windows.

This approach allows Sony to maximize revenue without bearing the costs and operational risks of running a large-scale mass-market streaming platform, in contrast to the vertically integrated strategies pursued by Disney and Warner.

This does not mean Sony has ignored streaming altogether: initiatives like Sony Pictures Core — a VOD service integrated into Sony devices and consoles — demonstrate a selective, ecosystem-driven approach rather than a mass-market platform strategy.

b) Evolution during the streaming war
As the “streaming wars” intensified — characterized by heavy investment in exclusive content, international expansion, and subscriber retention efforts — Sony Pictures consolidated its role as a premium content supplier and a “content arms dealer” to the major OTT platforms.

Rather than competing as a broad-catalog streamer, Sony has focused on monetizing its IP (intellectual properties such as Spider-Man, Uncharted, and Sony Pictures Television series) by strategically selling or licensing it to services like Netflix and Disney+. This has proven both profitable and sustainable, allowing Sony to maintain profitability without entering the massive content spending race. We recently discussed the industry implications of its latest agreement with Netflix in another article

c) Business Evolution: Figures and Users
Prior to Sony’s acquisition, Crunchyroll was already showing steady growth: by 2017 it had reached 1 million paying subscribers and around 20 million registered users.

Following Sony’s $1.175 billion purchase in 2021, the platform accelerated its expansion:

• 5 million paid subscribers at the time of the acquisition (2021).
• More than 10.7 million in 2023 and 13+ million in 2024, according to official figures.
• According to Sony corporate reports, Crunchyroll grew to approximately 17 million paid subscribers as of March 2025.

It also counts more than 120 million registered users globally.

This growth represents more than a threefold increase in paid subscribers since the acquisition, consolidating its position as the world’s largest anime-dedicated streaming service.

d) Future Outlook
Sony is pushing several strategies to expand Crunchyroll: broadening service offerings (manga, games, e-commerce), strengthening integration with the PlayStation Network, and developing collaborative educational projects in animation. to facilitate onboarding and monetization, and developing educational or collaborative animation projects.

In addition, the global anime market continues to grow as both a cultural and commercial sector — it is expected to nearly double between 2023 and 2030 — and Crunchyroll plays a key role in that expansion outside Japan and China.

Global and Regional Impact of Anime

Anime has moved from a subculture to a mainstream phenomenon. By 2025, the market outside of Japan already accounts for 56% of the sector's global revenue.

• The global anime market is valued at approximately $30 – $38 billion USD in 2025, with projections of sustained double-digit growth toward the end of the decade (ranging between 7% and 13% CAGR, depending on the source).
• Japan: It remains the creative epicenter and the most mature market, where anime is a pillar of the cultural GDP. For Sony, Japan is not just a consumer market, but the foundation of its vertical integration, controlling everything from production in studios like A-1 Pictures or CloverWorks to distribution. In 2025-2026, the strategy focuses on maximizing IP lifecycle value through merchandising and live entertainment experiences.
• China: Represents a unique challenge and opportunity due to its closed ecosystem. Unlike the rest of the world, where Crunchyroll dominates, distribution in China is managed through licensing agreements with local giants like Bilibili. The Chinese market is extremely sensitive to content regulation, necessitating a pure "arms dealer" strategy—selectively selling broadcast rights to avoid direct operational risks.
• North America: It remains the highest-value market outside of Japan, where anime has deeply penetrated American and Canadian popular culture. With a highly monetizable subscriber base, the region serves as the testing ground for Crunchyroll's integration with the PlayStation Network, optimizing user registration and direct billing.
• Europe: The European anime streaming market accounts for approximately 20% of the global market. Countries like France and Germany lead consumption alongside Spain, highlighted by a growing demand for physical collector's editions and in-person events that complement the platform's digital offering.
• Asia (Excluding Japan and China): This is the strategic territory for 2026 expansion, where growth is driven by young demographics and expanding mobile infrastructure. Crunchyroll competes here for screen-time dominance against local operators, relying on its simulcast capabilities to combat piracy in key markets.
• Southeast Asia and India: This region represents the new frontier for double-digit growth (CAGR). In India, mass content localization—not only in English but also in regional languages like Hindi or Tamil—is replicating the retention success seen in Latin America, converting millions of casual users into paid subscribers.
• Latin America: This is the region with the highest relative growth, with over 60 million active fans. In markets like Mexico, anime represents 12% of online audiovisual consumption. Sony has boosted retention by 40% thanks to the massive localization of dubs into Spanish and Portuguese.

2026-2030 Outlook: Beyond the Screen

The future of Sony and Crunchyroll rests on three fundamental pillars:

1. Cinema as an Event: Films like Demon Slayer have validated anime as a box office driver, often outperforming mid-budget Hollywood productions.
2. AI and Localization: Implementation of AI for mass dubbing and subtitling, drastically reducing global distribution costs.
3. Market Dominance: Sony now controls approximately 40-45% of new global anime distribution, granting it unprecedented bargaining power with CTV (Connected TV) operators.