Insight: Adult Animation Was Economic Boom For Netflix And FOX Entertainment In 2023
Numbers don’t lie. The year 2023 will be remembered for some of the biggest stories in adult animation history, but the biggest story is the success that the adult animation industry is having in just about every television medium whether it be broadcast or streaming.
Take a recent report from Deadline where FOX Entertainment President Rob Wade seems to indicate that much of the network’s viewership that would’ve been impacted by not having a lot of available content due to the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes was actually stable. With animation usually needing nine months to complete, the original premieres for primetime animation that had premiered during Fall 2023 would’ve started production probably around the Q4 2022/Q1 2023 time frame. Already profitable series like Krapopolis offered one of Fall’s only original series premieres, coupled with mainstays like season premieres of the entire Animation Domination lineup, the latest iteration of Treehouse of Horror, and NFL/MLB lead-ins providing ample eyeballs, FOX was well-positioned to weather the strike storms and should be able to garner enough output as additional union negotiations with the likes of IATSE and Teamsters coming down the pike.
Krapopolis’ ratings aren’t there yet but with a couple of seasons already ordered the network is willing to be patient to allow the series to find an audience. In the meantime, legendary franchises like Bob’s Burgers and Family Guy are two of FOX’s biggest contributions for new content on Hulu. Disney has since purchased 100% of one of the bigger streamers in the United States and had last year renewed their syndication deals with FOX.
With getting ample help on animated comedies from FOX, Hulu has been increasingly digging into anime originals to compete with a Netflix that had seen an 80% increase in penetration in Asian markets largely buoyed by both Japanese imports and Netflix’s Japanese originals. In fact, anime is expected to be a $30 billion global industry by 2025 and $70 billion in 2032.
Netflix knows this and also knows that the largest contributors to their viewership is gaming consoles, ergo more anime and more IP inspired by gaming. The recipe is working, THR has reported that as per Netflix’s adult animation slate has contributed to 20% of overall viewership across the streamer’s entire library with the likes of Castlevania, Love, Death & Robots, Bee and Puppycat, Disenchantment, Big Mouth, and Skull Island all contributing and even 2021’s Arcane showing up in the top 1500 series on the streamer in total viewership for the first six months of 2023. The result is a streamer that added 19 million subscribers in 2023 despite releasing 130 fewer originals.
The second half of 2023 has already seen Netflix release exciting IP for adult animation with the likes of Castlevania: Nocturne, Blue Eye Samurai and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off and the next year we’re staring down the pike of more gaming adaptations like Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, Devil May Cry, and the just teased second season of Arcane.
Expect to see other countries try to get in on all of this action as well. India could very well be the source of the next big adult animation invasion with the medium helping to contribute an additional $40 billion worth of content to the global market by 2025
