The anime research division of Bushiroad Inc. released its 2025 rankings of Japan’s television anime market, with “Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX” claiming the top spot in both general awareness and fan engagement metrics.
The Anime Data Insight Lab, a division within the Tokyo-based entertainment group, tracked 270 titles broadcast during the year—204 new productions and 66 sequels. The methodology combined Google search volume to measure mainstream visibility with social media activity on X to gauge enthusiast interest.
Bandai Namco Holdings Inc.’s Gundam franchise entry dominated by a wide margin. The series, a collaboration between Sunrise and Studio Khara, registered fan engagement scores five times higher than its nearest competitor, “Medalist.”
The rankings also highlighted unexpected performers. “Milky☆Subway: The Galactic Limited Express” grew its fan engagement 31-fold from premiere to peak, despite launching with minimal attention. Such outliers suggest that sustained word-of-mouth can compete with franchise recognition, though established properties still command the overall charts.
Sequels for “My Hero Academia” and “The Apothecary Diaries” ranked prominently in general awareness, confirming continued demand for familiar intellectual properties.
The study’s reliance on publicly available search and social data provides transparency, though it captures only certain forms of audience response—notably excluding streaming viewership and merchandise sales, metrics that drive actual revenue for anime producers.
