One Piece has gained a massive following over the years, selling millions of manga copies and garnering some of the highest viewership with its anime series. Although this anime has been around for decades, it remains one of the most popular shows to date. Still, many fans wonder exactly how many people will be watching One Piece in 2023.

Editor's note: This article was updated in December 2023.

How popular is One Piece worldwide?

One Piece is one of the most popular anime and manga series to date, although its popularity has always been higher in Asian regions, particularly Japan. However, the popularity of these titles is generally calculated based on the combined sales of the manga and the viewership of the anime adaptation over time.

It's no surprise that One Piece reaches the top of almost every anime list, having aired since 1997 alongside its accompanying One Piece manga issues. Many fans consider One Piece to be the most popular anime series in Japan for several years, surpassing other anime by a landslide in terms of combined views by 2020, as detailed below by fans on Quora.

However, One Piece has always competed for the top spot in Japan, airing alongside a plethora of other amazing anime series on Japanese television networks. As seen below, thanks to fans on Quora, One Piece saw a decline in views in May 2020, ranking only 6th in Japan.

It took One Piece many years to reach new heights globally, ranking 8th on TV Time's list of the top 10 TV shows (The Binge Report) in 2020 and shared on Otakus' Notes. That being said, it was still an incredible moment as it marked the first time an anime series had made the top 10 list out of hundreds of popular mainstream TV shows.

The anime series has begun to take the world by storm, grossing $20.9 billion by 2022, according to Japan-Dev, fueled by a never-ending plot and a series of incredible One Piece movies. However, the series' viewership has seen ups and downs over the years, slowly gaining more fans in other regions while experiencing fluctuating viewership in Japan.

One Piece's global popularity compared to other anime series

While it took a while for One Piece to gain traction in Western regions, it has dominated compared to many popular anime series. As reported by Polygon, a new map has calculated the most popular anime series in all 50 US states using search data collected in 2021.

The results indicated that One Piece had the highest views in the anime series genre at the time, being preferred in 25 of the 50 US states across the country. Not only is it considered the best-selling manga of all time, but it has also been the most searched-for anime series in the United States on several occasions.

Things are getting harder to track globally—but we have plenty of statistics to draw on, thanks to analytics studies conducted by Diamond Lobby. One Piece's popularity is often compared to that of other iconic anime series, such as Naruto.

One Piece appeared to fall below Naruto globally in 2021, reaching the fourth spot based on Google search data collected from 187 countries worldwide. Based on trackable data, One Piece was most popular in 9.30% of Europe, 15.21% of Asia, and 17.64% of Africa.

As of 2022, One Piece was considered significantly more popular than Naruto worldwide, being primarily enjoyed in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Greece, Italy, Hong Kong, Singapore, Morocco, Spain, France, Vietnam, Australia, Israel, Algeria, United Arab Emirates, Belgium, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Sweden, Austria, Germany, Iraq, Portugal, Turkey, Switzerland, Netherlands, Philippines, Canada, United Kingdom, Norway, Chile, Egypt, and Nepal.

The 5-year data collected from 2017 also shows the ups and downs of One Piece's popularity, while confirming that the series has gained more fans in recent years compared to Naruto in particular. While Naruto seemed to gain a lot of runtime during the global lockdowns of 2020, One Piece still seems to have gained popularity over the past two years.

According to Gem Ranking, One Piece was the 5th most-watched TV show on Japanese SVOD services in 2022, behind Ranking King (#4), Jujutsu Kaisen (#3), Attack on Titan (#2), and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (#1). Even though the series has experienced fluctuating viewership in Japan, One Piece has consistently remained somewhere in the top 10.

Are more people watching One Piece in 2023?

It seems that more and more people are catching up on the One Piece saga in 2023, especially with its numerous blockbuster releases and the new live-action One Piece adaptation on Netflix. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Netflix series One Piece ranks first among original series in the weekly ranking, with 21.85 million hours of viewing in the United States as of September 28, 2023.

While the Netflix version of One Piece hit the top of the charts within weeks of its release, many fans seem to be continuing the original anime series as well. Since One Piece still has some time left before it ends, you have plenty of time to catch up and follow all of Luffy's crazy adventures.

Given that there are conflicting reports and figures fluctuate daily, it is virtually impossible to determine the exact number of viewers in 2023. One Piece's total viewership includes legal streaming services as well as hundreds of illegal ones that cannot necessarily be tracked using Google data or SEO tools – therefore, the actual number of viewers for One Piece is considerably higher in reality.

That's all there is to know about how many people will watch One Piece in 2023. While the franchise has had its ups and downs over the past few years, it certainly remains one of the most beloved anime series of all time.

What do you think about the number of people watching One Piece in 2023? Let us know in the comments below!