Anime Industry Reaches Record Highs in 2024 as International Revenue Far Outpaces Japan

It is safe to say that anime has become a global medium, fueled by the creativity of Japanese animators and increasingly worldwide animators. At TIFFCOM on Thursday, the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) unveiled a preliminary summary of its upcoming Anime Industry Report , which focuses on the industry in 2024. The report announced that the entire anime market grew to 3.8407 trillion yen (US$25 billion) in 2024, representing a 114.8% increase from 2023 — the second-highest increase on record, following the period from 2018 to 2019. The Anime Industry Report from the AJA is a yearly compendium on the industry from the previous year, released annually in December, with the 2025 report also scheduled to be released in a few months. The AJA divides the research into two portions: a broad sense and a narrow sense. Anime Industry in a broad sense via AJA . Blue is domestic, orange is international. The graph above illustrates the total revenue generated by the anime industry as a whole each year since 2002. This includes everything from pachinko, events, merchandise and more, as well as traditional sales of home releases, theatrical releases, streaming and others.  Since 2023, overseas revenue has overtaken domestic Japanese revenue, with the gap widening in 2024. International revenue grew a whopping 26% to reach 2.1702 tillion yen, while domestic revenue only grew 2.8% to 1.6705 tillion yen. This is the third year that overseas revenue has exceeded domestic, with 2020 being the first year due to COVID-19, and followed by 2023 and now 2024.  RELATED: Teikoku Databank: Anime Production Market Grew to Largest Ever in 2023 The panelists from AJA expect that gap to widen further in coming years as more of the anime ecosystem itself is exported internationally, including anime events wholesale, exhibitions, brand collaborations and media partnerships.  Anime Industry in a narrow sense via AJA . Blue is purple, orange is international. The second graph above examines the anime production market, specifically the revenue generated by anime studios. Again, there was a 9.1% increase overall, with 466.2 billion yen: domestic at 347.4 billion yen and international at 118.8 billion yen, representing increases of 6.7% and 16.6%, respectively. While growth from global sources for anime studios is growing at a faster rate than domestic, revenue sources from Japan far exceed those of international sources for anime studios. Source:  AJA , TIFFCOM Press Release

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