Netflix tops Japan’s $7.2bn streaming market as sector grows 15%

Japan’s premium streaming sector expanded 15% in 2025, reaching $7.2 billion in revenue, according to a new report from Media Partners Asia (MPA).

The growth was fueled by the expansion of ad-supported subscription tiers, stronger local content pipelines, and the addition of live events and sports programming, per MPA’s Japan Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics report, published alongside its measurement platform AMPD.

Netflix led the premium video-on-demand market with a 22% revenue share, while Japanese platform U-Next followed with 12%.

Together with Amazon Prime Video, the three platforms accounted for half of the sector’s total revenue.

The market added four million subscribers in 2025, bringing the total to 67.3 million.

Prime Video remained the largest service by subscriber base at 19.3 million and captured 22% of the 8.1 billion hours streamed — narrowly ahead of Netflix. Ad-supported platform TVer led overall viewing time with a 23% share.

Japanese drama remained the dominant genre, reaching 73% of viewers and accounting for 37% of viewing hours.

Anime also played a pivotal role, with Spy x Family emerging as the most-streamed title in Q4 2025.

International content continued to perform strongly, with titles such as Wicked, A Minecraft Movie, and Stranger Things maintaining high engagement.

MPA noted that future growth will increasingly depend on event-driven programming, highlighting Netflix’s exclusive local rights to the 2026 World Baseball Classic and expanded sports offerings across platforms.