Crunchyroll announced the full breakdown of their latest membership tier price increases this week, effective on May 1st, 2024.
It has been about two years since the Funimation merger with Crunchyroll to make the world’s biggest online anime database (legally speaking, of course!). This week (Wednesday, May 1st, 2024), Crunchyroll rolled out an email and announcement on their website that Mega Fan and Ultimate Fan membership fares will be increasing across multiple countries. In a quick change, these price hikes are effective as of May 1st.
So what are the new prices for Crunchyroll’s subscription tiers? Thankfully, the cheapest Fan tier will remain $7.99 a month (USD). However, the Mega Fan subscription tier will rise from $9.99 per month to $11.99 per month; and the Ultimate Fan subscription tier will go up from $14.99 per month to $15.99 per month. The change will impact pricing in Argentina, Colombia, France, Portugal, the United States and select additional countries.
New membership tiers and benefits were introduced in 2020, along with a price decrease in nearly 100 territories in July 2022. The Crunchyroll free-trial period has also shifted to seven days of free viewing from the previous 14 days. This would mean less time for new users to test out the anime-viewing service and decide whether to subscribe to it. So, now new fans have 7 days to binge over 1,000 episodes of One Piece versus the 14-day trial before!
Even though these price changes come into effect this month, users still have until their next billing cycle (which should be around June 1st) to decide whether to downgrade or unsubscribe from the service. Here is a simple breakdown of the differences in each Crunchyroll subscription tier:
| Free | Fan | Mega Fan | Ultimate Fan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | — | $7.99 | $11.99 | $15.99 |
| Number of Devices To Stream | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| Ads? | Yes | No | No | No |
| Mobile Downloads (Offline Viewing) | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Crunchyroll Game Vault Access | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Crunchyroll Store Discount | — | 5% off select products at the Crunchyroll Store. | 10% off select products at the Crunchyroll Store. | 15% off select products at the Crunchyroll Store. |
| Merch Shipping Fees | Free U.S. shipping on purchases greater than $75 or a flat-$7 from the Crunchyroll Store. | Free U.S. shipping on purchases greater than $75 or a flat-$7 from the Crunchyroll Store. | Free U.S. shipping on purchases greater than $50 or a flat-$7 from the Crunchyroll Store. | Free U.S. shipping on all purchases at the Crunchyroll Store. |
As Crunchyroll slowly absorbed Funimation’s exclusive database, the orange anime streamer has seen a major overhaul. Now, the anime library is home to over 45,000 episodes and about 1,400 series and films; they have one of the best simulcasts to match with airing in Japan; a dedicated collection of anime-related music videos and concert specials; and Crunchyroll Games has expanded their mobile games in their Game Vault. The company stated that the price hike was the result of greater investment in anime and the additional offerings of games and music.
This price adjustment news comes just after the streamer announced its launch of their website store in Europe, and just days after the highly requested Multiple Profiles feature launched on the platform. This new feature allows multiple users in the same household to have their own customizable profiles, watchlists and recommendations. Now, I have a cute Anya and Spy x Family-inspired design on my account. Overall, Crunchyroll has been putting in the work to offer more for its users.
But sometimes more is not really better. The community has already noted they are unsubscribing, or those subscribed to the higher tiers are moving down to a cheaper plan. This could be a major move for their direct competitors like HiDive to step it up. While HiDive does not have a big anime library, its basic plan is cheaper at $5.99. There are also anime series on Disney+, Netflix and Prime Video.
Although this major change will affect anime fans in one way or another, there are many alternatives out there. It is sad, but not surprising with many subscriptions and companies restructuring themselves. I will be sticking to the Mega Fan tier, with a hard sigh looking at the increase to my monthly billing going up. I only use the platform to stream anime and some gaming but maybe I will need to explore it more to get the full use of it now.
