Summary
- HiAnime.to surpasses Disney+ & Crunchyroll in monthly visitors.
- U.S. government puts HiAnime.to on Notorious Markets for Piracy list.
- The website’s fate is uncertain, piracy poses a challenge to legal streaming.
The U.S. government doesn’t take things easy when it comes to piracy. It has recently put on its notorious streaming list a huge anime streaming website. Anime especially is known for having many piracy websites, as many fans aren’t willing to pay for monthly subscriptions from legal sources.
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A notorious website, HiAnime.to was put on the NML list, and the website surpassed gigantic streaming websites such as Disney+ and Crunchyroll in monthly visitors.
The Anime Piracy Now On The U.S Government’s Notorious Streaming Website
The Website in Question is HiAnime.to
HiAnime.to has been receiving a lot of attention recently, mainly due to its insane visitor numbers. Indeed, HiAnime.to has surpassed in monthly visitors legal streaming websites such as Disney+ and Crunchyroll. When comparing it to Crunchyroll specifically, it has been able to receive somewhere around three times the amount of visitors. In the last few months, their monthly visitors have consistently been surpassing the 300 million visitor mark.
This has all ended in attention that could possibly lead to the websites shutting down.
USTR, or the Office of the United States Trade Representative, showcased in its 2024 reports that the website HiAnime.to made it to the NML, short for the Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy. This means that the United States of America has put this anime piracy site on its notorious streaming list.
What This Means for HiAnime.to
The Website Could Eventually Be Shut Down
Being put on the NML by the USTR is quite serious. The USTR puts websites there that infringe on copyright or engage in trademark counterfeiting.
It was believed that HiAnime succeeded Aniwatch, which itself was a rebrand for Zoro.to.site. Those websites were previously shut down, for the same reason, which is piracy.
With so much negative attention, it’s not impossible that HiAnime.to could be shut down. However, even if it does get shut down, it will probably return under a different name. Or, another anime website could scoop the chance to become the biggest anime streaming website.
Piracy is quite serious as it can affect the revenue of many people. That said, it’s hard to say whether the demand for illegal streaming will ever go away. As long as there is a demand for it, illegal streaming websites will keep on popping up, despite attempts to shut them down.