Only Leveling surpasses Demon Slayer and becomes the leader on Crunchyroll

The impact of Solo Leveling on the streaming anime market became evident this week, when the series was officially recognized as the most watched anime of all time on Crunchyroll, surpassing established names like Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. The information was disclosed by the platform itself on June 17, 2025, in an official statement.

According to Crunchyroll, the adaptation of the South Korean webtoon led the audience ranking in over 120 countries, including strategic markets like United States, Brazil, France, Germany, and Mexico. The record encompasses the sum of all episodes from the first season, released between January and March 2024, as well as replays and marathons accumulated until the end of the first semester of 2025.

The platform highlighted that the most watched episodes were the debut and the season finale, with traffic peaks surpassing the highest numbers recorded during the releases of Attack on Titan: Final Season and Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc. These two animes, previously historical leaders of Crunchyroll, now occupy the second and third position in the global ranking.

The performance of Solo Leveling gains even more relevance when considering that the production was surrounded by doubts before the premiere. Adaptations of Korean webtoons into anime were still viewed with skepticism by a portion of the Japanese audience. However, the animation, produced by A-1 Pictures studio, managed to deliver a combination of fidelity to the original material, action scenes with a high level of detail, and a soundtrack composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, known for his work on Attack on Titan and Blue Exorcist.

In the statement, Crunchyroll emphasized that the success of Solo Leveling "represents a new moment for the anime catalog", with the arrival of titles that expand the influence of South Korean pop culture on the international scene.

So far, the platform has not disclosed absolute viewing numbers, only maintaining relative rankings by region and period. The second season of Solo Leveling, titled Arise from the Shadow, is already confirmed to premiere in 2025, with expectations to maintain high audience performance.