Anime Finds Fans Across Asia and Latin America

Anime has evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry, with Studio Ghibli standing out as one of its most critically acclaimed creators. The studio’s films Spirited Away (2001) and The Boy and the Heron (2024) each earned the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, highlighting anime’s strong international prestige.

Data from a Statista Consumer Insights survey shows that the genre of animated movies and series is popular not just in its country of origin - Japan, where 51 percent of respondents said they watch anime on TV or via a streaming platform - but also in other countries in Asia, including South Korea (28 percent) and China (27 percent). In Vietnam, 45 percent of respondents said they watch anime, while in the Philippines, 35 percent said the same and in both Indonesia and Malaysia the share was 32 percent. These countries have not been selected for this infographic due to lower sample sizes.

Anime also enjoys widespread popularity across several Latin American countries, with Brazil notably prominent. As the following chart shows, 36 percent of Brazilian respondents said they watch anime films or series. This can partly be attributed to the cultural exchange facilitated by Brazil’s large Japanese-Brazilian population, which is the largest outside of Japan, as well as the influence of hit series such as Dragon Ball and Saint Seiya, which first aired on TV in the country in the 1990s. The broader category of cartoons was also popular in Brazil, with 42 percent of respondents selecting the option - one of the highest percentages among the countries surveyed.