How Much Money do the Biggest Anime Pirates Make?

There's a certain pirate streaming site that every anime fan knows of. But they might not know that the owners are swimming in cash.

Validate me!

In the depths of his Mother's Basement, Geoff Thew creates videos analyzing the storytelling techniques of anime and video games. He has been named the number one Worst YouTube Anime Reviewer by The Top Tens.

[dangerdash]

This anti-piracy thing has not aged too well, with most legal streaming services being complete shite with bad translations, dubs, over inflated cost for subscriptions that may or may not have all the episodes of the anime you want to see, or said anime being region locked. Piracy has become the superior user friendly service, allowing you unrestricted high quality access to anime.

[shuten]

Every time I go to Crunchyroll to watch something
*This video isnt available in your country*

[clowny]

Wait, does that mean Porn hub is illegal?

[ericofire]

"Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable."

~ Gabe Newell

[keen]

I won't support an industry that doesn't care for me. Not a single anime streaming service is available in my country, if they don't want to go through hoops to provide service for everyone, I won't go through hoops to support them.

[TheLaXandro]

>I don't want to say what it is
>posts statistics page

[GodzillaFreak]

So you’re telling me I should make an anime streaming site to make tons of money. Right?

[skringiboi]

My dad: Would you download a car for free

Me: yes

[OffSatan]

maybe Funamation should let europeans give them money

[Faapu]

Region locking seriously needs to die immediately, I've ran into anime I'm interested in on Crunchyroll only to find that dreaded box telling me that it's not available in my region. Anyway, I'm never using this website again, instead I'm gonna opt for torrents whenever I'm desperate enough.

[Lawlsworth]

he's talking about kisshentai guys

[firstnamelastname]

Piracy is bad guys.

This statement is brought to you by crunchyroll.

[eitak]

"everyone fucking knows kissanime" - digibro (c. 2017)

[mrrdirty]

The problem is that free anime sites have more series. Crunchyroll doesn't have the first two seasons of Hajime no Ippo, the original Dragon Ball, and a lot of other stuff as well.

[bosunbill]

oh boy, this ages like a decade old milk.

[Michirin]

I think that donating towards the "Animator Dormitory Project" or similar charities for animators is a much better idea than supporting legal streaming services which are just god-awful to use...

[hunterbarnes]

Am I a horrible person for wanting to start up my own pirating website just because of these stats..?

[phoebeeileen]

If the anime industry is going to die, trust me, it's not going to be because people didn't pay for subscriptions to legal anime streaming sites.
The Industry itself is in shambles with animators and studio staff being thoroughly overworked and criminally underpaid. I pay my $7 a month but I have no way of guaranteeing this money will actually make it into the hands of the people who deserve it the most, the actual animators, artists and anime studios.
..Producers and various other middlemen eat up the money so much that the real creators of the shows you love see almost none of it in the end.
So it's fine, pay for your streaming site subscription, but don't sit there thinking that it is your money that is saving anime because the industry itself has a much bigger structural problem that cannot be solved by you simply paying a monthly subscription fee.

[klein]

This one ages better and better every year. Funimation is dying and taking everyone’s legitimately purchased digital content with it.

[zopick]

If the illegal sites offer an arguably better service with by far more selection, it's kind of hard not to pirate lol. ''But you'll support the industry!'' Please, the amount of money the industries get from Crunch/Fun is so minuscule. If you really want to help the industry, then buy the merch or original manga/LN/game. Until Japan makes an actual good streaming service that has a wide variety and is available to most of the world, then pirating is going to continue.