The 7th Annual Global Demand Awards have named the most in-demand anime of 2024 worldwide, beating out several other heavy hitters from the year, including the likes of One Piece and Solo Leveling.

The Global Demand Awards are produced by Parrot Analytics, which touts the Awards as “Entertainment’s ONLY data-backed awards show.” The awards are entirely determined by global fan activity with no judges or voting committees involved, using the year’s demand data captured over the full year. The finalists were determined using data collected between Jan. 1 and Oct. 31, 2024, although the winner was decided using the full year’s worth of data. The finalists considered were My Hero Academia, Solo Leveling, One Piece, Demon Slayer and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, with My Hero Academia claiming the title.

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Top 5 Most Globally In-Demand Anime of the Year Aren’t Just Shonen Jump Series

Looking at the finalists, there are a few immediate and interesting takeaways. My Hero Academia, One Piece, and Demon Slayer will likely not come as a major surprise, as the popular Shonen Jump anime adaptations are often at the top of these sorts of awards, as seen in the Crunchyroll Anime Awards as well. However, the inclusion of Solo Leveling and Frieren may be a welcome surprise for many anime fans — their ability to stand among far longer-running shonen powerhouses like My Hero Academia and One Piece could point to some of the recent trends in popular anime that have begun to emerge in the last couple of years.

Solo Leveling was a long-awaited anime adaptation for which fans of the original manhwa had been waiting for years. With its intense action and striking character designs, the anime hit the dirt running, quickly becoming a major hit. While it’s one of the first manhwa adaptations to reach its current level of popularity, some of its predecessors like Tower of God and The God of High School were also quite popular, arguably helping to set the groundwork for Solo Leveling‘s later success. Fans are also often quick to mention that manhwa as a whole has an abundance of strong series that have yet to be adapted, and with Solo Leveling’s obvious popularity, new adaptations could well be in the works in the coming years.

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Meanwhile, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End also offers an interesting insight into anime trends over the past year, as two of the biggest series of 2024 were not isekai but rather more traditional high fantasy. Frieren and Delicious in Dungeon were both massive hits during the year, showcasing the power of non-isekai fantasy. Much of the 2010s and the first half of the 2020s have been dominated by the isekai genre — it’s been one of the most prolific among seasonal anime for the last decade, often with five to 10 isekai anime airing in any given season. However, the chokehold that isekai has held on the anime industry may finally be faltering as more traditional fantasy series of all kinds have managed to make a major splash.

Despite what the other nominees might show about the potential of upcoming new anime series, the top five series of the year also showcase an obvious fact that has been impossible to escape for years — major shonen anime and Shonen Jump adaptations in particular still dominate much of the anime sphere. It’s no surprise to see three major Jump series nominated for most popular anime of the year at any type of award show, speaking to the global popularity and staying power of series like One Piece, Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia. The next few months of Jump will be interesting for fans to keep track of, as with many of the publication’s recent flagship series having ended — including both My Hero Academia and Demon Slayer — the magazine will be on the lookout for its next big hit to lead a new generation.

My Hero Academia

Release Date

April 3, 2016

Source: Parrot Analytics