The #coronavirus pandemic sweeping through the world is changing the way we live our lives.

Countries are on lockdown.

Most people are indoors.

Society is in a panic.

People are panic buying.

More anime fans are on the internet.

The last point is where the Coronavirus comes into play.

Being forced to stay in doors has boosted the popularity of anime within a short space of time.

Google Trends for the anime industry

If we look at the graph for “anime” in the past 12 months, anime has JUMPED in the past month.

This is especially true if you focus on the past 2 weeks.

Before the coronavirus pandemic started, anime was on a nice upward trend at a slow, but steady pace. But now it’s booming like never before.

Anime comparison from 2004 to 2020

And if we look at data taken from 2004, anime has never been so popular until today on March 24th 2020.

That’s even more true when you compare 2004 stats (when anime was at a peak) and match it up with the peak we’re seeing in March 2020.

The only other time anime’s surge was close was back in 2016.

Anime news in particular is on the RISE

When focusing on “news” search for anime, there’s been a massive upward trend since 2008. But since 2020 and the last few weeks #coronavirus has made this trend surge even higher.

More people are searching for anime news now they’re stuck in doors.

Anime searches on YouTube is on the rise, too

Anime news websites (and anime sites in general) aren’t the only ones seeing more traffic and surges.

Anime YouTubers should be seeing an increase in anime views and fans engaging with their content.

The highest peak anime saw on YouTube was back in 2017. The coronavirus has shot up those numbers, making them comparable.

LESS people are reading Manga

There are people reading Manga, but compared to anime it’s been on a downward trend.

The corona pandemic has “slightly” boosted Manga, but not by much.

Anime streaming services like Crunchyroll are on the rise though

Crunchyroll is seeing the highest surge they’ve had (as far as Google searches) since 2019.

It’s rising up steadily and shows no sign of slowing down. Not surprising since more anime fans are now streaming.

Depending on how long this corona drama lasts, this will do one of two things:

Increase sales for anime businesses (more people streaming, etc).

Or it’ll reach a point where people STOP spending because they’re out of work.

If #2 comes into play then eventually things will regress if it lasts for longer than we’d like. Then it’ll start to hurt businesses to some degree.

Smaller businesses and websites in the anime space (and in general) may suffer.

But as for now – anime is booming more than ever. And it could have a positive impact in future.

News source: Google Trends.

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