Japan's Streaming Market Surges to $7.2 Billion as Three Platforms Claim Half the Revenue

The real screen competition in Japan is no longer playing out in cinemas or on living-room televisions — it is happening across tens of millions of connected devices. According to a sweeping new report from Media Partners Asia released on Monday, Japan's premium streaming sector generated $7.2 billion in revenue during 2025 — a 15 percent increase over the prior year and a figure that cements the country as one of the world's most lucrative digital entertainment markets Japan’s Premium Streaming Sector Revenue Hit $7.2B In 2025, With Netflix Leading The Way – Media Partners Asiadeadline.com·SecondaryJapan‘s premium streaming sector grew 15% in 2025 to hit revenues of $7.2B, according to Media Partners Asia (MPA). A combination of an expansion of ad-supported tiers, more local content, and live events and sports increased the money-making opportunities, per the Japan Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics report released today by MPA and its proprietary measurement platform AMPD..

The numbers tell a story of consolidation at the top. Three platforms — Netflix, Amazon's Prime Video and local powerhouse U-Next — now command a combined 50 percent of premium video-on-demand revenue . Netflix leads on the money side with a 22 percent revenue share, while U-Next holds 12 percent through an integrated model that bundles streaming video with manga, music and exclusive sports programming Japan’s Streaming Market Hits $7.2 Billion as Netflix, Prime Video and U-Next Dominate, Report Findsvariety.com·SecondaryJapan‘s premium video-on-demand sector achieved $7.2 billion in total revenue during 2025, marking a 15% year-over-year increase, according to a new report from Media Partners Asia. The growth reflects platforms’ increasing reliance on diversified revenue models, including ad-supported subscription options, alongside greater investment in domestic programming and live sports rights. Three services control half the market’s total revenue.. Prime Video, meanwhile, remains the largest service by raw subscriber count, benefiting from cross-promotion within Amazon's broader retail and e-commerce operations Japan’s Streaming Market Hits $7.2 Billion as Netflix, Prime Video and U-Next Dominate, Report Findsvariety.com·SecondaryJapan‘s premium video-on-demand sector achieved $7.2 billion in total revenue during 2025, marking a 15% year-over-year increase, according to a new report from Media Partners Asia. The growth reflects platforms’ increasing reliance on diversified revenue models, including ad-supported subscription options, alongside greater investment in domestic programming and live sports rights. Three services control half the market’s total revenue..

The subscriber landscape expanded by four million users over the course of 2025, with Netflix driving the largest gains, powered in significant part by a partnership renewal with Japanese telecom giant KDDI in November 2025 . That telco bundling strategy has become a defining feature of Japan's streaming wars: DAZN, the sports-focused platform, similarly expanded its reach by integrating into NTT Docomo's Ahamo Max mobile plan, while Disney+ and Hulu Japan teamed up to offer a combined package Japan’s Premium Streaming Sector Revenue Hit $7.2B In 2025, With Netflix Leading The Way – Media Partners Asiadeadline.com·SecondaryJapan‘s premium streaming sector grew 15% in 2025 to hit revenues of $7.2B, according to Media Partners Asia (MPA). A combination of an expansion of ad-supported tiers, more local content, and live events and sports increased the money-making opportunities, per the Japan Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics report released today by MPA and its proprietary measurement platform AMPD..

Yet the picture shifts when measuring what people actually watch. In terms of total hours consumed across all premium VOD platforms in 2025, the free, ad-supported broadcaster service TVer captured the highest share at 23 percent . Prime Video came in second at 22 percent of total hours watched, with Netflix trailing by a single percentage point Japan’s Premium Streaming Sector Revenue Hit $7.2B In 2025, With Netflix Leading The Way – Media Partners Asiadeadline.com·SecondaryJapan‘s premium streaming sector grew 15% in 2025 to hit revenues of $7.2B, according to Media Partners Asia (MPA). A combination of an expansion of ad-supported tiers, more local content, and live events and sports increased the money-making opportunities, per the Japan Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics report released today by MPA and its proprietary measurement platform AMPD.. The distinction matters: TVer's dominance in hours watched underscores that, for a large segment of Japanese viewers, the preferred streaming experience remains one that costs nothing.

Netflix, however, claims superior engagement depth. The average Netflix subscriber in Japan spent nearly 20 hours per month on the platform, the highest per-user figure among all services Japan’s Premium Streaming Sector Revenue Hit $7.2B In 2025, With Netflix Leading The Way – Media Partners Asiadeadline.com·SecondaryJapan‘s premium streaming sector grew 15% in 2025 to hit revenues of $7.2B, according to Media Partners Asia (MPA). A combination of an expansion of ad-supported tiers, more local content, and live events and sports increased the money-making opportunities, per the Japan Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics report released today by MPA and its proprietary measurement platform AMPD.. The company's co-CEO Greg Peters noted last year that Japanese titles have accumulated 25 billion cumulative viewing hours globally, making them the second most-watched category of non-English content on the platform Japan’s Premium Streaming Sector Revenue Hit $7.2B In 2025, With Netflix Leading The Way – Media Partners Asiadeadline.com·SecondaryJapan‘s premium streaming sector grew 15% in 2025 to hit revenues of $7.2B, according to Media Partners Asia (MPA). A combination of an expansion of ad-supported tiers, more local content, and live events and sports increased the money-making opportunities, per the Japan Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics report released today by MPA and its proprietary measurement platform AMPD. — a statistic that reflects not just domestic popularity but Japan's outsize cultural export power.

Content preferences reveal an industry deeply rooted in local storytelling. Japanese drama was the dominant genre, reaching 73 percent of viewers and accounting for 37 percent of all hours viewed . Anime, unsurprisingly given its global ascendance, reached 50 percent of viewers and captured 26 percent of hours, with the long-running franchise Spy x Family topping the charts as the most-streamed title in the fourth quarter of 2025 . Taken together, local content of all types accounted for 80 percent of streaming hours — a figure that should give pause to any Western studio banking on imported tentpoles to conquer the Japanese market Japan’s Streaming Market Hits $7.2 Billion as Netflix, Prime Video and U-Next Dominate, Report Findsvariety.com·SecondaryJapan‘s premium video-on-demand sector achieved $7.2 billion in total revenue during 2025, marking a 15% year-over-year increase, according to a new report from Media Partners Asia. The growth reflects platforms’ increasing reliance on diversified revenue models, including ad-supported subscription options, alongside greater investment in domestic programming and live sports rights. Three services control half the market’s total revenue..

Nevertheless, international content retains a meaningful foothold. American titles still reached 28 percent of Japanese streaming users, with blockbusters like Wicked, A Minecraft Movie and the evergreen Stranger Things maintaining steady viewership . Korean content, which has surged globally in recent years, reached 22 percent of Japanese viewers and accounted for 8 percent of total hours Japan’s Premium Streaming Sector Revenue Hit $7.2B In 2025, With Netflix Leading The Way – Media Partners Asiadeadline.com·SecondaryJapan‘s premium streaming sector grew 15% in 2025 to hit revenues of $7.2B, according to Media Partners Asia (MPA). A combination of an expansion of ad-supported tiers, more local content, and live events and sports increased the money-making opportunities, per the Japan Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics report released today by MPA and its proprietary measurement platform AMPD.. The data suggests Japan's streaming audience is cosmopolitan but fundamentally local-first — a dynamic that distinguishes it from markets in Southeast Asia or Latin America where Hollywood still holds more sway.

The most consequential shift may be the industry's aggressive pivot toward live event programming. Netflix will livestream all 47 games of the 2026 World Baseball Classic in Japan beginning March 5, marking its first foray into live sports broadcasting in the country Japan’s Premium Streaming Sector Revenue Hit $7.2B In 2025, With Netflix Leading The Way – Media Partners Asiadeadline.com·SecondaryJapan‘s premium streaming sector grew 15% in 2025 to hit revenues of $7.2B, according to Media Partners Asia (MPA). A combination of an expansion of ad-supported tiers, more local content, and live events and sports increased the money-making opportunities, per the Japan Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics report released today by MPA and its proprietary measurement platform AMPD.. The move is a direct challenge to traditional broadcasters that have long held monopoly over baseball — Japan's most popular sport — and represents Netflix's broader global strategy of using marquee live events to reduce subscriber churn.

U-Next has been equally aggressive, acquiring rights to women's golf majors and the English Premier League through 2028 . TVer, for its part, plans to carry coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics Japan’s Premium Streaming Sector Revenue Hit $7.2B In 2025, With Netflix Leading The Way – Media Partners Asiadeadline.com·SecondaryJapan‘s premium streaming sector grew 15% in 2025 to hit revenues of $7.2B, according to Media Partners Asia (MPA). A combination of an expansion of ad-supported tiers, more local content, and live events and sports increased the money-making opportunities, per the Japan Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics report released today by MPA and its proprietary measurement platform AMPD.. The sports rights arms race in Japan mirrors trends in the United States and Europe, where platforms like Apple TV+, Amazon and Peacock have spent billions to lock up exclusive access to NFL, Premier League and Formula 1 programming. The implicit bet is that live sports — with their appointment-viewing nature and emotional intensity — represent the most churn-resistant content category in an era of subscription fatigue.

Not everyone is convinced the growth trajectory will hold. Japan's population has been declining for years, and the country's aging demographics mean the pool of potential new subscribers faces natural limits. Some industry observers have questioned whether the current growth rates reflect genuine market expansion or merely a reallocation of entertainment spending from traditional pay-TV and physical media — a structural shift rather than new money entering the system.

The advertising dimension adds another layer of complexity. The 15 percent revenue growth was driven in part by the expansion of ad-supported subscription tiers, which offer lower prices in exchange for commercial interruptions Japan’s Premium Streaming Sector Revenue Hit $7.2B In 2025, With Netflix Leading The Way – Media Partners Asiadeadline.com·SecondaryJapan‘s premium streaming sector grew 15% in 2025 to hit revenues of $7.2B, according to Media Partners Asia (MPA). A combination of an expansion of ad-supported tiers, more local content, and live events and sports increased the money-making opportunities, per the Japan Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics report released today by MPA and its proprietary measurement platform AMPD.. This model has found traction in Japan where price sensitivity remains a factor even among affluent consumers. But the ad-supported model also raises questions about its long-term ceiling: per-user advertising revenue must eventually justify the lower subscription price, and the competition for digital advertising dollars is fierce across every major economy.

"Japan's premium VOD market has reached a critical maturation point," said Dhivya T, lead analyst and head of insights at MPA. "Growth is no longer just about net adds, but sophisticated monetization through ad-tier yields, telco bundling, and vertically integrated ecosystems" Japan’s Premium Streaming Sector Revenue Hit $7.2B In 2025, With Netflix Leading The Way – Media Partners Asiadeadline.com·SecondaryJapan‘s premium streaming sector grew 15% in 2025 to hit revenues of $7.2B, according to Media Partners Asia (MPA). A combination of an expansion of ad-supported tiers, more local content, and live events and sports increased the money-making opportunities, per the Japan Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics report released today by MPA and its proprietary measurement platform AMPD.. The analyst added that the next phase of competition would hinge on "event-driven engagement and premium local storytelling" — essentially, a bet that Japan's cultural distinctiveness will continue to drive both domestic retention and international export value.

The broader implications extend beyond Japan's borders. If one of the world's largest and most culturally distinct economies — one with a deeply entrenched traditional broadcasting culture — has decisively shifted to streaming, it strengthens the case that the global transition from linear television is irreversible. For Netflix, the Japan market represents a proof of concept: that a Western platform can lead in revenue even in a market where local content dominates 80 percent of viewing time, provided it invests sufficiently in domestic originals and strategic partnerships Japan’s Streaming Market Hits $7.2 Billion as Netflix, Prime Video and U-Next Dominate, Report Findsvariety.com·SecondaryJapan‘s premium video-on-demand sector achieved $7.2 billion in total revenue during 2025, marking a 15% year-over-year increase, according to a new report from Media Partners Asia. The growth reflects platforms’ increasing reliance on diversified revenue models, including ad-supported subscription options, alongside greater investment in domestic programming and live sports rights. Three services control half the market’s total revenue..

For competitors, the message is equally clear. Prime Video's subscriber lead despite trailing in revenue per user suggests that e-commerce bundling creates a floor but not a ceiling for streaming growth . U-Next's integrated content model — combining video, manga and sports — offers a potential template for local players in other Asian markets seeking to compete against Silicon Valley giants . And TVer's dominance in total hours watched is a reminder that free, ad-supported streaming is not merely a stepping stone to paid subscriptions but a formidable business model in its own right Japan’s Premium Streaming Sector Revenue Hit $7.2B In 2025, With Netflix Leading The Way – Media Partners Asiadeadline.com·SecondaryJapan‘s premium streaming sector grew 15% in 2025 to hit revenues of $7.2B, according to Media Partners Asia (MPA). A combination of an expansion of ad-supported tiers, more local content, and live events and sports increased the money-making opportunities, per the Japan Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics report released today by MPA and its proprietary measurement platform AMPD..

As Netflix prepares to broadcast its first pitch at the World Baseball Classic in three weeks, the streaming wars in Japan are entering a new phase — one defined less by subscriber acquisition and more by the ability to command attention in a market that has no shortage of entertainment options.