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Netflix’s anime adaptation Sakamoto Days has shattered records, becoming the platform’s most-watched anime premiere since it began reporting weekly viewing numbers.
The adaptation of the Yuto Suzuki’s action manga brought in 8.6 million views in its debut week, ranking as the #2 non-English TV show, just behind Squid Game Season 2, and #4 overall across all categories.
Sakamoto Days‘ premiere outperforms the previous record-holder, Baki Hanma Season 2, which peaked at 6.0 million views during its release.
The series also outperformed recent non-exclusive anime titles on Netflix, such as Dandadan (4.3M views) and Dragon Ball Daima (3.2M views). However, these titles gained the majority of their viewership on Crunchyroll, the preferred platform for anime streaming in most regions.
Here’s a list of the top anime premieres on Netflix:
- Baki Hanma Season 2: 6.0M views
- Dandadan: 4.3M views (non-exclusive)
- Record of Ragnarok Season 2: 3.0M views
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Hashira Training Arc: 2.6M views (non-exclusive)
- My Happy Marriage: 2.7M views
The “views” metric used by Netflix calculates total hours watched relative to the total runtime of available content. While this roughly equates to unique viewers for a single-episode premiere, it becomes less precise as more episodes are released.
Sakamoto Days follows the story of Taro Sakamoto, a legendary hitman who retires to live a quiet life as a convenience store owner. However, his past refuses to let him go, pulling him back into action-packed adventures filled with humor and intense battles.
The anime is releasing in two parts on the platform, with the first part, consisting of 11 episodes. The second part will start airing in July 2025.
TMS Entertainment, the studio behind Detective Conan, Fruits Basket (2019), and Dr. Stone, is handling the animation production for Sakamoto Days anime.
Masaki Watanabe is serving as the director, with Taku Kishimoto in charge of series composition, and Yo Moriyama handling the character designs.
Source: Tudum, Miles Atherton on LinkedIn
