COMING SOON: Anime By the Numbers
And a sneak peek of the US’ favorite new anime of 2025!
In recent years, Japanese animation has evolved into one of the most valuable and fastest-growing mediums in entertainment worldwide, but particularly in the west, the anime and manga industry is still opaque and regularly misrepresented.
While we’ve seen an increase in excellent journalism covering the topic, myself and the rest of the team at White Box Entertainment realized that many of the insights and analyses we’re already providing for the industry’s biggest players would also be valuable to a larger audience.
We’ll be starting our newsletter Anime by the Numbers soon, but in the meantime, please enjoy this teaser and make sure to subscribe on Substack to keep up with our research!
- Miles Atherton | Founder, White Box Entertainment
The first question we’re often asked at White Box is: “What anime are popular in the U.S.?” We’re always ready for it, because every month, we create the U.S. Anime Simulcast Engagement Ranking. And we’ll be sharing the top 10 of these currently airing anime right here on Substack.
We’ve developed a formula that employs a few dozen carefully-selected metrics, weighted by how well each one correlates with positive outcomes from previous seasons, and to account for our ongoing research on fan behavior. Estimated viewership, general audience interest, and depth of online engagement all factor into a final popularity score.
Of the 70+ titles analyzed for January 2025, SOLO LEVELING Season 2 was a clear number one, and was the biggest outlier we’ve seen for as long as we’ve been collecting these data. As for why, well, you’ll just have to wait and find out when the newsletter launches soon!
I’m really enjoying Solo Leveling, Sakamoto Days and Dr. Stone!