Summary
- HiAnime.to surpassed Disney+ & Crunchyroll in visitors, with 331M in November 2024.
- Legal streaming sites face revenue loss, piracy may become the norm.
- HiAnime.to may eventually be shut down, but could rebrand or be replaced.
Piracy has always existed in anime, just like most other media, as quite a lot of people aren’t willing to pay for subscriptions to streaming websites, such as Crunchyroll.
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Recently, the numbers that a certain piracy website has been generating were revealed, and they are mind-blowing compared to what official websites have been generating.
The Website That Had More Visitors Than Disney+ And Crunchyroll
That Website is Known as HiAnime.to
It was recently revealed that a piracy website has received more visitors than major streaming networks in the United States. Specifically, it received more visitors than Disney+ and Crunchyroll, both of which are mega-streaming websites.
The piracy website that achieved just that is called HiAnime.to. This website has seen tremendous growth over 2024. In fact, just in November of 2024, it had over 331 million visitors. In comparison to what Crunchyroll achieves monthly, this is about three times more monthly visitors.
Disney+ and Crunchyroll are, however, not the only huge streaming platforms it has surpassed, as it has also, for example, surpassed GitHub and Peacock TV.
Will HiAnime.to Be Shut Down?
- Eventually it Might Be Shut Down
- It Will Simply Rebrand or Be Replaced by A New Major Anime Piracy Website
Currently, there doesn’t seem to be any huge action taken by anyone to shut HiAnime.to down, but its success can’t be ignored for long. The fact that it can surpass Disney+ and Crunchyroll is no small feat. This is a lot of revenue loss for anime producers, especially as piracy is becoming the norm again.
The site will eventually be forced to shut down. It was targeted before by the ACE, alongside many other piracy websites. But even if it is taken down, it will probably just have to come back under a different name, as has been done countless times previously by other piracy sites. It is also possible that it might simply be replaced by a new piracy website that was just waiting around the corner, as is usually the case. There will always be a huge demand for illegal streaming, so it being fully stopped is quite difficult, unless major steps are taken.