The Highest-Grossing Anime Films Ever — and Where to Stream Them in India

Demon Slayer's Infinity Castle took $793 million and became the biggest anime film ever made, beating the record its own predecessor set in 2020. Nine of the ten biggest are streaming in India — and the split between Netflix and Crunchyroll is almost perfectly clean.

By Bhaskar Dwivedi
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train
Your Name.

Anime stopped being a niche at the global box office somewhere around 2020, when Demon Slayer: Mugen Train became the highest-grossing film in the world in a year when cinemas were shut. In 2025 the sequel, Infinity Castle, took $793 million and made the point again at a larger scale: it finished seventh among all films released that year, ahead of two Hollywood tentpoles with four times its marketing budget.

The all-time anime leaderboard now splits cleanly in two. Half of it is Studio Ghibli, films between 24 and 29 years old that keep earning through re-releases. The other half is the modern shonen and Makoto Shinkai era, where a series with an existing television audience opens a film like an event.

That split runs through the Indian streaming rights as well, and it is unusually tidy: every Ghibli film here is on Netflix, and every Crunchyroll-era title is on Crunchyroll or SonyLIV. Two subscriptions cover nine of the ten. The exception is The First Slam Dunk, which is not available in India at all. For everything else currently streaming, our anime hub tracks what is on each platform.

  1. 1/10Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle

    Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle

    Film · 2025 · Japanese · Jul 18, 2025

    Crunchyroll7.7
    Worldwide gross$793,491,854
    Released2025

    The biggest anime film ever made, and the seventh-biggest film of any kind released in 2025. It is the first of a three-part finale to the Demon Slayer series, which means it is also the rare record-setter that is explicitly incomplete. In India it streams on Crunchyroll, directly or as an add-on channel through Prime Video.

  2. 2/10Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train

    Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train

    Film · 2020 · Japanese · Oct 16, 2020

    SonyLIV
    Worldwide gross$512,668,000
    Released2020

    The film that made the modern anime box office look possible: released in the middle of a pandemic, it finished 2020 as the highest-grossing film in the world, the only non-Hollywood title ever to do that until Ne Zha 2 repeated the trick in 2025. Five years later its own sequel took its record. It is on SonyLIV in India, plus the Crunchyroll and Anime Times channels on Prime Video.

  3. 3/10Your Name.

    Your Name.

    Film · 2016 · Japanese · Jul 1, 2016

    CrunchyrollSonyLIV
    Worldwide gross$405,300,000
    Released2016

    Makoto Shinkai's body-swap romance was the film that turned him into the only anime director outside Studio Ghibli with reliable global box office, and for six years it was the highest-grossing anime film ever. It streams on Crunchyroll and SonyLIV in India.

  4. 4/10Spirited Away

    Spirited Away

    Film · 2001 · Japanese · Jul 20, 2001

    Netflix
    Worldwide gross$395,580,000
    Released2001

    Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece, the first hand-drawn and first non-English film to win the Best Animated Feature Oscar, and for two decades the highest-grossing Japanese film ever made. Its total includes several re-releases, including a 2024 IMAX run. On Netflix in India, along with the rest of the Ghibli library.

  5. 5/10Suzume

    Suzume

    Film · 2022 · Japanese · Nov 11, 2022

    CrunchyrollSonyLIV
    Worldwide gross$315,000,000
    Released2022

    Shinkai's road movie about a girl closing doors that let disaster through, and the third of his films to clear $190 million. It is the most direct about its subject — the 2011 earthquake and tsunami — of anything he has made. On Crunchyroll and SonyLIV in India.

  6. 6/10The Boy and the Heron

    The Boy and the Heron

    Film · 2023 · Japanese · Jul 14, 2023

    Netflix
    Worldwide gross$294,200,000
    Released2023

    Miyazaki's film after he unretired, which won him a second Best Animated Feature Oscar at the age of 83. Marketed in Japan with a single poster and no trailer, on the theory that curiosity would do the work. On Netflix in India.

  7. 7/10The First Slam Dunk

    The First Slam Dunk

    Film · 2022 · Japanese · Dec 3, 2022

    Worldwide gross$279,000,000
    Released2022

    Takehiko Inoue adapting his own basketball manga thirty years after it ran, and the only film in this top ten with no Indian streaming home of any kind — not a subscription, not a rental. It is a genuine gap: a film that outgrossed One Piece and Howl's Moving Castle and that an Indian viewer simply cannot watch legally.

  8. 8/10One Piece Film Red

    One Piece Film Red

    Film · 2022 · Japanese · Aug 6, 2022

    Netflix
    Worldwide gross$246,500,000
    Released2022

    The fifteenth One Piece film and by far the most successful, built around a concert by a character who was written for the occasion and whose songs went to number one in Japan. On Netflix in India.

  9. 9/10Howl's Moving Castle

    Howl's Moving Castle

    Film · 2004 · Japanese · Sep 9, 2004

    Netflix
    Worldwide gross$237,500,000
    Released2004

    Miyazaki adapting Diana Wynne Jones, made in the middle of his most productive stretch and the second-biggest Ghibli release worldwide. On Netflix in India.

  10. 10/10Princess Mononoke

    Princess Mononoke

    Film · 1997 · Japanese · Jul 12, 1997

    Netflix
    Worldwide gross$231,300,000
    Released1997

    The oldest film on this list and the one that made Ghibli a commercial force at home, breaking the Japanese box office record before Titanic took it back a few months later. Its worldwide figure is helped by 4K re-releases in the 2020s. On Netflix in India.

The striking thing about this list is how recent the top of it is. Four of the top eight came out in the last five years, and the two biggest are from the same television series. Anime's theatrical business is no longer carried by one studio's back catalogue; it is carried by weekly shows converting their audiences into cinema tickets, which is a model closer to Indian cinema's than to Hollywood's.

For an Indian viewer the practical summary is two subscriptions and one dead end. Netflix holds the Ghibli library; Crunchyroll, on its own or as a Prime Video channel, holds Demon Slayer, Your Name and Suzume, with SonyLIV duplicating several of them. The First Slam Dunk has no Indian home at all.

See also: the highest-grossing films of 2025, where Infinity Castle finishes seventh, and animation's 2026, which makes the broader case that animated films are now the most reliable business in cinema.

Frequently asked

What is the highest-grossing anime film of all time?
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, released in 2025, with $793,491,854 worldwide. It took the record from Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, which had held it since 2020.
Where can I watch Demon Slayer Infinity Castle in India?
On Crunchyroll, either through the Crunchyroll app or as a Crunchyroll channel added to Prime Video. The earlier film, Mugen Train, is on SonyLIV as well as the Crunchyroll and Anime Times channels.
Are the Studio Ghibli films on Netflix in India?
Yes. Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke and The Boy and the Heron all stream on Netflix in India, as does the rest of the Ghibli library.
Which of these films is not available in India?
The First Slam Dunk. It has no Indian subscription service and no rental listing, despite grossing $279 million worldwide — the only title in this top ten with no legal Indian option.

Sources