Crunchyroll is bringing fully localized versions of its anime streaming service to Taiwan and South Korea, the latest step in a multiyear expansion by Sony Group’s steadily growing anime business. President Rahul Purini announced the moves at the APOS media conference in Bali, with Taiwan set for this summer and South Korea slated for later in 2026.
“Asia is a priority for Crunchyroll because it’s home to some of the world’s most passionate anime communities,” Purini said in a fireside chat, framing the expansion as part of the company’s longstanding mission to be “the best place for fans to experience anime, wherever they are.”
Taiwanese fans will get access to a large portion of the platform’s catalogue and simulcast slate this summer, the company said, with South Korea to follow later in 2026. Over the past three years, Crunchyroll moved into India and Thailand, building its offering there around localized interfaces, extensive dubbing and on-the-ground community events supporting the core streaming product.
Crunchyroll credits that localization-heavy approach with sharp engagement gains. In India — which it calls one of its fastest-growing markets worldwide — the platform now offers more than 900 titles and over 180 dubs across Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, with dubbed content accounting for more than 65 percent of viewing and total watch time up 3.5 times, the company said. In Thailand, where it launched a fully localized service in February, Crunchyroll reports that viewership has quadrupled and ranks the market fourth worldwide for anime engagement — helped by Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Infinity Castle, which it says became the highest-grossing Japanese film and the top-grossing animated film of all time in that market.
The Asia expansion is part of a broader anime strategy that Sony Group has elevated to a central corporate priority. Sony acquired Crunchyroll from AT&T in 2020 for $1.18 billion and folded it into Funimation, the anime-streaming pioneer it had picked up earlier. The fully integrated service now counts more than 21 million subscribers and operates as a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Aniplex, the anime production arm of Sony Music Entertainment in Japan. Investment bank Jefferies has forecast the global anime market will reach $60.1 billion by 2030, up from $22 billion in 2023. Sony’s prescience for the category was on clear display last year with the release of Infinity Castle, which grossed more than $700 million worldwide and became the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time, with Crunchyroll as co-distributor outside Japan.
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