Crunchyroll hosted its first anime industry summit in New York, and it saved the biggest product news for the closing remarks.
The company opened its manga add-on in 11 new markets, backed by survey data showing that 69% of anime viewers read digital manga monthly.
The inaugural Crunchyroll Anime Future Forum held on October 7 drew nearly 500 attendees from Japan and the U.S.
Crunchyroll also unveiled a new anime destination on PlayStation and a content division called Crunchyroll StoryWorks.
The anime forum featured sessions on fandom, technology, storytelling, and IP.
The lineup featured leaders from Aniplex, MAPPA, TOHO, and Shueisha, plus special guests Samuel L. Jackson and James Gunn.
"There's so many great anime films that I just love. I love the wildness of them, the beauty of them, the authenticity - the emotion is so powerful.
If I stopped wanting to learn more, I would stop making movies," Gunn said during the keynote titled, "The Creative Engine Behind Franchises."
National Research Group (NRG) presented its Global State of Anime Fandom 2026 study at the same event.
It surveyed 5,000 viewers ages 13 to 54 across 10 international markets, plus 500 viewers in Japan.
NRG found that 79% started watching anime by age 17.
Another 77% have recommended anime to someone who had never watched it.
"There is no single path into anime and no one way to be an anime fan," Crunchyroll Chief Strategy Officer Travis Page said.
Digital manga is one of these paths, and the study put digital manga readership at 69% monthly or more.
Crunchyroll President Rahul Purini used his closing remarks to announce the international rollout of Crunchyroll Manga.
Timing the announcement to the release of the study gives Crunchyroll a data-backed reason to point to when publishers ask why it needs more licenses.
Research works hardest as a brand strategy when it arrives with something fans can subscribe to and get access to.
Online Manga as a Second Subscription
Crunchyroll Manga debuted in the U.S. and Canada in October 2025.
The library has since grown past 450 titles from publishers including Kodansha, Shueisha, and Square Enix.
Notably, over 250 localized English titles from J-Novel Club, Square Enix, and Yen Press are available on iOS, Android, and the web.
Crunchyroll Manga is now available in the U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
The launch lineup includes "The Apothecary Diaries," "My Dress-Up Darling," and "Delicious in Dungeon."
Action titles from VIZ Media will arrive later.
Readers get ad-free access, offline reading, full two-page spreads, and a quick jump between a manga and its anime adaptation on Crunchyroll.
The service sells as a premium add-on in most of the new markets.
Ultimate Fan members in select countries get it included, and India offers it only through this tier.
"For years, fans have asked us to bring manga closer to their Crunchyroll experience, and we are excited to make that a reality for more fans around the world," Crunchyroll Chief Content Officer Asa Suehira said in a statement.
The rollout follows a busy year for the platform.
During Ani-May 2026, Crunchyroll introduced its first ambassador lineup.
Big Sean, Noah Lyles, and REI AMI joined activations across streaming, gaming, retail, and live events.
Big Sean took the ambassador role onto the forum floor, joining a panel on the influencers shaping anime fandom.
Recruiting ambassadors from music and sports keeps these influencer partnerships working past the campaign month and into product events like this one.
A New Revenue Line Backed by Fan Research
Crunchyroll passed 21 million paid subscribers in May 2026, up from 17 million a year earlier.
The global anime market is estimated at $34.76 billion in 2026, per Research Nester.
Crunchyroll is pulling its own fan research into product development, using the reading data to justify a second paid tier for the audience it owns outright.
The payoff is a launch with proof attached, so publishers see demand evidence before they hand over more licenses.
Three plays marketers can take from how this announcement was staged:
- Publish research that points to a product: Commissioned studies work hardest when one finding hands the next launch a business case nobody has to argue for.
- Announce where the industry gathers: A closing keynote puts press, licensors, and partners in the same room and sets the framing before anyone else can.
- Tier the offer by loyalty: Selling an add-on to casual users while folding it free into the top tier gives every segment its own reason to spend more.
Crunchyroll will learn quickly whether readers pay for a second layer.
India's Ultimate Fan-only model becomes the cleanest test of whether this product launch can stand without a streaming discount attached to it.
Our Take: Can Manga Readers Tell Crunchyroll What to Adapt Next?
Reading data may turn out to be the most valuable thing Crunchyroll Manga collects.
We think chapter-by-chapter reading shows which stories hold people before a studio commits to an adaptation.
No other anime streamer collects reading data and distribution rights in the same place.
Netflix built its Originals slate on this kind of viewing data, and the anime pipeline is slower and far more expensive to guess wrong on.
Crunchyroll recently took a minor stake in Link-U Group, the company powering the service, so the plumbing is already friendly.
We'd watch India and the U.K. first, where Crunchyroll gets its first clean look at readers it has never measured.
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