Crunchyroll, the world's largest animation-focused over-the-top video service (OTT), has unveiled its subscription prices in Korea as it moves to target the market. Industry officials said competition in Korea's animation OTT market is expected to intensify with the arrival of the No. 1 global animation streaming player.
According to the industry on the 27th, Crunchyroll recently disclosed its subscription fees in Korea. The Fan plan, which allows playback on one device, is 9,900 won per month, and the Mega Fan plan, which supports simultaneous playback on up to four devices, is 10,900 won per month. Both plans let users watch content without ads. The Mega Fan plan also includes access to Crunchyroll Game Vault.
Crunchyroll is the world's largest animation OTT, operating in more than 200 countries and territories. As a Sony Group platform, it holds tens of thousands of titles centered on Japanese animation and touts "simulcast," a service that releases new shows overseas right after they air in Japan. In 2020, Sony Group acquired Crunchyroll from AT&T for $1.18 billion (about 1.8 trillion won) and unified its animation business by integrating it with the existing animation platform Funimation.
In particular, Crunchyroll is seen as a comprehensive animation corporations that goes beyond a simple streaming platform to encompass production and investment, distribution, licensing, theatrical releasing, and merchandise sales. Its strength is an ecosystem that links content consumption, product sales, and offline events on the back of a global fandom. For Korean users, it is known as the global hit platform for the webnovel and webtoon-based animation "Solo Leveling." The title became the most-watched show in Crunchyroll's history and swept nine institutional sector including anime of the year at the "2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards."
Crunchyroll's push into Korea is part of its broader Asia expansion strategy. The company recently strengthened localization in India and Thailand with local-language interfaces and dubbed content, yielding results. In India, dubbed content accounts for more than 65% of total viewing, and in Thailand, viewing has quadrupled since the service launched in February. The Crunchyroll-distributed "Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle" also became the highest-grossing animated film in Thailand's history.
Korea's animation market is clearly growing. "Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle," released last year, drew more than 5.8 million moviegoers in Korea, setting the all-time box-office record for a Japanese film. "Attack on Titan The Final Chapters: The Last Attack," despite a solo release, also surpassed 1 million viewers. On top of that, with webtoon-based animations scoring hits overseas and global interest rising in Korean-made animation, the need to secure Korean intellectual property (IP) is cited as a key reason behind Crunchyroll's entry into the Korean market.
Industry officials expect Crunchyroll's entry to further accelerate competition in the animation OTT market. In Korea, the animation-dedicated OTT Laftel, operated by ANIPLUS, currently leads the market. Meanwhile, comprehensive OTTs such as Netflix, Tving, Coupang Play, and Wavve are racing to secure and invest more in Japanese animation, leading to analysis that Korea's animation OTT market has effectively reached saturation.
Industry watchers said the key to Crunchyroll's early success will be how quickly it secures hit Japanese titles and exclusives. As competition intensifies, content rights expense are rising and users face heavier burdens from "subscription fragmentation," while the expanding animation market is expected to fuel fiercer marketing battles targeting fandoms. Existing platforms are also expected to respond by bolstering service competitiveness and IP acquisition.