In January 2024, Solo Leveling made its debut on Crunchyroll's premium streaming service. Since then, the title has become a major hit among anime viewers, surpassing long-established franchises like Attack on Titan to become the website's sixth most popular series.
About two months ago, Reddit's anime community compiled a massive list of Crunchyroll's top-ranked 300 anime series, with placements based on both total views and overall rankings. The writers also used this data to determine each franchise's popularity relative to Crunchyroll's #1 champion, One Piece. At the time the post was made, Solo Leveling sat just under Attack on Titan at seventh place -- a rather remarkable feat given that the latter anime has had nearly a decade to cultivate a dedicated fan base. Although Attack on Titan far superseded Solo Leveling in both viewership and relative popularity, both series maintained an even 4.9 rating. However, as shown in a more recent Reddit post, Solo Leveling has since closed that massive viewer gap, going from 179,062 views to 252.2K views in just a few months. Since Attack on Titan only has 252.1K total views, Solo Leveling has now firmly dethroned the series as Crunchyroll's sixth most popular title.
The following list contains the original top 10 ranked anime series on Crunchyroll (as of March 2024):
Unlike many other popular anime, Solo Leveling did not start out as a manga but rather as a web novel, written by South Korean author Chu-Gong. The novel was serialized on KakaoPage from July 2016 to October 2018. After its successful online run, the story was adapted into a popular manhwa by Jang Sung-Rak. Chu-gong's dark fantasy epic is set in a world where humanity is regularly tormented by monsters that originate from alternate dimensions known as "dungeons."
Solo Leveling's main hero is Jinwoo Sung, a young man who wants nothing more than to become a "Hunter" -- part of an alliance of powerful warriors who work to defend humanity. While Jinwoo starts out weak, everything changes after almost his entire party is wiped out during a massive double-dungeon raid. Jinwoo Sung emerges from this tragedy with a remarkable new power: the ability to level up indefinitely. Amazed yet bewildered, Jinwoo Sung sets out on a journey to discover the true origin of his powers. The story's anime adaptation by A-1 Pictures -- which was co-produced by Crunchyroll -- premiered on Jan. 7, 2024.
Solo Leveling's International Massive Success Does Not Mirror Its Popularity in Japan
While Solo Leveling has unarguably amassed a large and dedicated following, it is also one of the more controversial titles in Crunchyroll's lineup. It is comparatively darker than many other shonen titles and, like Attack on Titan, contains many brutal death scenes that can make it a hard watch at times. Additionally, it has been criticized for being derivative of other popular anime titles -- especially by viewers in Japan. Based on the results of a Japanese popularity poll, the show did not make a significant impact domestically during its initial airing, only managing to place 35th (out of 61) for the Winter 2024 anime season. However, its massive success on Crunchyroll indicates that Solo Leveling has cultivated a significant international following.
The Solo Leveling anime is available to stream via Crunchyroll and Prime Video. The English version of Chu-Gong's original web novel is available from Yen On, an imprint of Yen Press.
Source: Reddit
