Which Streaming Service Has The Best Anime Catalog?

By Elijah Gonzalez | October 16, 2025 | 1:00pm

Anime Lists Best Anime

Which Streaming Service Has The Best Anime Catalog?

The anime streaming war is in a bit of an odd spot: while there used to be a direct stand-off between Crunchyroll and Funimation when it comes to anime-focused streamers, Sony acquired Crunchyroll back in 2021 and subsequently merged the two services together. Since then, there hasn’t been much direct competition, with HIDIVE being the only other notable entirely anime-focused streaming service in North America. It’s a situation that’s dangerously close to a monopoly.

That said, that doesn’t mean there isn’t some indirect competition. With anime viewership on the rise, Netflix, Hulu/Disney+, Prime Video, HBO Max, and more have joined in on the trend, licensing many of the same series as Crunchyroll while also either directly funding or exclusively distributing certain shows. As a result, those who watch anime as they’re released will find themselves ping ponging between various streamers, and while Crunchyroll usually gets the distribution rights to the plurality of new shows, there are always a handful that end up elsewhere, some of which end up being quite high-profile.

However, considering the constantly rising costs of these services, many folks likely can’t afford active subscriptions to all of them at once. With that in mind, we’ve devised a list ranking streaming services based on their anime catalogs, factoring in both the breadth of their selection and the number of notable exclusives each of them has. We’ve also included links to our existing lists that wrap up the best of what each has to offer.

Keep in mind, the order of this list doesn’t factor in the quality of the service overall or its price, just its catalog, although those factors will be discussed as well. When appraising a streamer’s catalog, we are only considering shows available on the service without an additional subscription or direct purchase—technically, Prime Video has the biggest catalog because you can access your Crunchyroll subscription, among others, through the service, but that doesn’t count. This list is also only factoring in the North American version of these services, as catalogs differ based on region.

Without further explanation, here are the streaming services with the best anime catalogs.

Honorable Mentions:

Roku Channel, Tubi, and Pluto TV all have decent catalogs that are accessible for free with ads. Retro Crush has an impressive catalog of classic anime, many of which are quite difficult to find elsewhere.

While HBO Max’s recent exclusives through Toonami have largely been disappointing (Ninja Kamui, Lazarus, and Uzumaki all started solid before going downhill), the service has a huge catalog of Studio Ghibli movies, many of which are some of the best anime films of all time. If you are only interested in Ghibli, this is the service to get.

5. Prime Video

Notable exclusives: Look Back, Evangelion Rebuilds, City The Animation, Uma Musume Cinderella Gray, Memories

Amazon briefly attempted to get into the dedicated anime streaming business with Anime Strike, a subscription-based service on Amazon Channels that only lasted from January 2017 to January 2018 before getting cancelled. However, since then, Prime Video has once again started to lean into the space, and while its back catalog pales in comparison to many other streamers, the service has been getting much more involved in the seasonal streaming picture, having scooped up the currently airing Uma Musume Cinderella Gray and Sanda, for instance. It also has a fairly impressive collection of exclusive films, such as one of last year’s best movies, Look Back, alongside the Evangelion Rebuild tetralogy (as a side note, it’s pretty indicative of how messed up the streaming picture is that you need to subscribe to multiple services to watch all of Evangelion).

4. HIDIVE

Notable exclusives: Kino’s Journey, Clannad, Azumanga Daioh, Rock Is A Lady’s Modesty, Made In Abyss

As one of the only major direct competitors to Crunchyroll that’s entirely focused on anime streaming, you would think that AMC’s HIDIVE would be a bit higher on this list. On top of somehow still not having an app available on platforms like PlayStation, the streamer’s catalog remains sparser than you would like. Still, it fairly consistently has one or two notable airing shows, alongside a reasonable number of classics and other noteworthy series from the last few years. Whether it can hold on to this precarious position remains to be seen, especially considering that one of its biggest previous exclusives, Oshi No Ko, is headed to Crunchyroll for its next season.

You can read our list of the best anime on HIDIVE here.

3. Hulu/Disney+

Notable Exclusives: Medalist, Star Wars Visions, Tatami Time Machine Blues, Undead Unluck, Tengoku Daimakyo

Note: Hulu and Disney+ share a streaming library, so they’ll be bundled together for this list.

Hulu and Disney+ have been much more involved in the seasonal anime picture as of late, scooping up excellent recent series like Medalist, alongside truly random, but welcome, inclusions like Tatami Time Machine Blues. Until recently, the service also stealthily had the second-best back catalog of shows, behind only Crunchyroll, with a long list of unimpeachable classics. Unfortunately, just last month, the service suddenly removed many of its best old-school series, including Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Yu Yu Hakusho, Trigun, and more. It still has a very impressive library, but the move was enough to drop it one spot on this list.

You can read our list of the best anime on Hulu here and on Disney+ here.

2. Netflix

Notable exclusives: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Pluto, Orb: On the Movements of the Earth, The Summer Hikaru Died, Delicious in Dungeon

Netflix has undoubtedly made the biggest moves in the streaming space in recent years, throwing its considerable weight around to land exclusive distribution deals on many of the best new shows. While it doesn’t have as large a back catalog as some of the others on this list, it has a genuinely impressive hit rate when it comes to its exclusives: in addition to the five listed above, it also has JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure Part 5, The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Ranma ½ (2024), and more. Its back catalog also includes several all-timers, and is currently the only place to stream the original Neon Genesis Evangelion TV series.

However, it’s lucky for Netflix that this list doesn’t consider other factors, like distribution method: while the vast majority of streaming services that license new anime will “simulcast” (when a show goes up on a streaming service at the same time it broadcasts on weekly TV in Japan), Netflix makes seemingly random choices about which shows get a reasonable rollout and which don’t—JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure: Stone Ocean infamously had a weird batch rollout while The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity streamed weekly but around eight weeks after its Japanese broadcast. In short, they’re a bit of a menace for those who watch anime as they release.

That said, the service has also probably become the number one gateway into the anime scene for more casual viewers: a 2024 survey by Polygon found that it was the most-watched streaming service for anime among Gen Z and Millennials. That’s not exactly surprising given the service’s massive customer base, but the service has certainly leaned into this by landing so many exclusives.

You can read our list of the best anime on Netflix here.

1. Crunchyroll

Notable exclusives: Cowboy Bebop, Ping Pong: The Animation, Mobile Suit Gundam (1979), Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Michiko and Hatchin

Crunchyroll has the deepest anime catalog out of any streaming service by a fairly large margin, with hundreds of shows and the biggest slice of the seasonal streaming market. It has a long list of all-timers, an impressive chunk of artisanal weirdo productions you won’t find elsewhere, and most of the uber-popular battle shonens. And while the others on this list have chipped away a bit at the service’s chokehold on simulcasts, it is still the best service for dedicated anime fans; honestly, it’s more surprising when Crunchyroll doesn’t have a show than when it does. It also, at least until recently, had the best subtitle configuration out of the other major services, allowing for custom typesetting that allowed localizers to translate written signage and account for multiple characters speaking at the same time.

Unfortunately, though, it has not been all good times since the Funimation merger. Just recently, Crunchyroll had a very bad opening weekend to the Fall 2025 season, with several delays and a slew of technical issues that delayed its English-language subtitles. At the same time, some noticed negative changes to its subtitles, with many new shows appearing to use a more limited typesetting format that doesn’t allow for the previously mentioned robust options. There was also recently an AI snafu where the service used ChatGPT-generated subtitles provided by one of its third-party vendors. And perhaps most importantly, there was a fairly massive price hike last year, followed by a slew of layoffs in August; you know, the kind of things that happen after corporate consolidation and a lack of direct competition. It’s not exactly a good look when you jack up prices, fire a bunch of people, and then stumble as the latest season debuts.

Still, if you’re willing to begrudingly put up with these issues, the service remains the go-to place for more seasoned anime fans because of its impressive catalog. Sure, it very much should have the biggest library compared to many of the other services on the list, as it’s one of the only services out there dedicated almost entirely to anime, but that doesn’t negate the fact that it has the best catalog.

You can read our list of the best anime on Crunchyroll here.

Elijah Gonzalez is an associate editor for Endless Mode. In addition to playing the latest, he also loves anime, movies, and dreaming of the day he finally gets through all the Like a Dragon games. You can follow him on Bluesky @elijahgonzalez.bsky.social.