The Rise of Anime Piracy: A Digital Hydra That Won’t Die
Streaming giants were supposed to kill piracy. Instead, they might have fuelled its biggest resurgence yet.
In a plot twist worthy of a cyberpunk anime, HiAnime, a piracy website dedicated to streaming anime for free, has officially surpassed Disney+ in global monthly visits.
If that sounds like an exaggeration, the numbers tell a different story.
According to SimilarWeb, HiAnime raked in 364 million visits in October 2024, overtaking Disney+ at 343 million.
Even after a slight dip in November 2024, it still held the lead. The world’s biggest anime piracy site now outperforms one of the most powerful entertainment corporations on the planet.
It’s not just Disney+. HiAnime has three times the traffic of Crunchyroll, the largest legal anime streaming platform.
Meanwhile, rival piracy sites like Aniwave and GogoAnime have either disappeared or gone dark, funnelling even more users to HiAnime.
The battle for anime streaming dominance isn’t just between legal services anymore—it’s a tug-of-war between platforms with billion-dollar budgets and pirate sites running off ad revenue.
Why Are So Many Fans Turning to HiAnime?
The staggering numbers behind HiAnime’s traffic aren’t just a fluke; they’re a wake-up call for the industry.
The reality is that anime piracy isn’t just about price—it’s about accessibility. Here’s why anime fans are flocking to illegal streaming:
- Regional Restrictions & Licensing Chaos: Major streaming platforms divide content based on licensing deals. That means an anime available on Crunchyroll in the U.S. might be locked behind a different service in Europe or entirely unavailable in some regions. HiAnime? No such restrictions.
- Subscription Overload: Fans looking to watch multiple anime titles often find themselves needing to subscribe to Crunchyroll, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, and even smaller services like HiDive. The costs stack up quickly, and not everyone is willing to juggle five different subscriptions.
- Censorship & Altered Content: Some anime are edited or censored when they hit official streaming services. Pirates, on the other hand, ensure that viewers get the content exactly as it aired in Japan.
- User Experience & Convenience: Believe it or not, HiAnime’s interface is more user-friendly than some legal services. Fans have pointed out that sites like Crunchyroll suffer from bugs, buffering issues, and clunky interfaces.
The Industry Strikes Back—But Can It Win?
The entertainment industry isn’t just sitting back while piracy thrives.
Japan’s Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) has led efforts to shut down major piracy sites like Rine.cloud, a Brazilian site that once boasted millions of users.
Meanwhile, Google has received millions of takedown requests from anime giants like VIZ Media, Toei Animation, and Aniplex, targeting illegal streaming links.
Despite these crackdowns, piracy is the Hydra of the internet: shut one site down, and two more take its place.
HiAnime itself was once known as Zoro.to before rebranding to Aniwatch, then HiAnime.
If (or when) it gets taken down, history suggests another site will rise to fill the void.
Is There a Way Forward?
The battle between piracy and legal streaming has been raging for decades, and if there’s one thing history has shown, it’s that piracy thrives when legal alternatives fail to provide convenience.
Netflix was once seen as the answer to illegal downloads—until the streaming landscape became fragmented again. The same fate is now hitting anime.
If anime companies genuinely want to curb piracy, they need to rethink their approach:
- Simplified Subscription Models: Fans shouldn’t need to hop between five different services to watch a single franchise.
- Global Availability: Region-locked content only pushes users toward piracy.
- Better User Experience: If pirate sites offer a smoother experience than legal alternatives, something has gone wrong.
Until those changes happen, HiAnime (or its eventual successor) will continue to thrive.
As the numbers show, anime piracy isn’t just surviving—it’s winning.
