Anime Survey 2025 Preliminary Results

In this document we report some preliminary findings from the 2025 Anime Survey. A goal of this series of preliminary working papers is to provide the fandom with a brief overview of some of the basic findings of our work. In the interest of keeping this concise and interesting for readers, we have focused our attention on some of the most interesting and relevant findings for anime fans, rather than simply blanketing readers with hundreds of pages of findings that would be primarily of interest to researchers. Many of the findings not reported here will eventually be included in future academic papers.

We would like to again give special thanks to the participants and moderators on reddit this year. Thank you to everyone who spread the word and shared with friends!

Method and Participants

We emailed our volunteer list and recruited participants from various anime-related websites from October 17 to December 15, 2025. After removing participants who did not complete a majority of questions, the present data includes 1,369 anime fans (60.6% cis men, Mage = 27.51, SD = 8.07). Similar to prior years, the majority of respondents were from the United States (55.5%). However, we received responses from 69 different countries including Canada (7.1%), the UK (4.6%), Germany (3.6%), Australia (2.6%), Brazil (1.8%), India (1.6%), France (1.5%), and Poland (1.3%).

1. What are the gender and sexual orientation of anime fans?

Anime fans were asked to self-identify with any of the below categories. The data reveal that men are significantly more represented in our surveys than are women. The results are largely similar to prior years.

We also asked about sexual and romantic attraction. Participants were able to pick multiple categories. The numbers reveal, as in previous years, that while the majority of the fandom is straight, there is considerable diversity with respect to sexual and romantic attraction within the anime fandom. 

2. What other activities and interests do fans have?

Fans were asked to indicate which of the following interests applied to them (they were allowed to choose as many options as they wanted). The list looks similar to prior years, with manga, unsurprisingly, topping the list of interests.

3. How frequently do fans participate in fan-related activities?

We asked fans to indicate how frequently they participated in various fan-related activities (1 = never, 7 = often). Being fans of anime, watching official anime related media was the most frequent activity. This was followed by consuming fan-made media and talking with other fans. The results are similar to prior years.

4. What is fans’ relationship status?

We asked fans to select any of the below types of relationships. We examined the difference between 2024 and 2025 surveys and observed that there has been little change. Consistent with popular stereotypes about anime fans, the majority of fans in our sample are single, though it is far from true that “all” anime fans are single. 

5. What are fans’ genre preferences?

We asked fans to rate their preferences for various genres of anime on a scale we constructed from the 2016 survey (see https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JWTEW4PYVCntBCueFBLonX3EFFdUmL9l/view). Fans rated the items on a 7-point scale (1 = do not like, 7 = very much like). Comparing preferences in 2024 to 2025, fans showed considerable variability in their genre-specific interests, with little difference from last year.

6. What are fans’ attitudes toward AI?

We asked fans to rate 12 items regarding their attitudes towards, and use of, artificial intelligence (AI; 1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). The first four items were included in the 2023 survey. A comparison between 2023 and 2025 show a downward trend when it comes to anime fans’ attitudes toward AI-generated content, with anime fans being significantly less positive about AI than in 2023. Specifically, they had a more negative view, did not want to watch AI created content, and felt more strongly that AI would hurt artists and the industry.

The remaining eight items were new to this year’s survey, but largely reflect the same negative attitudes: fans generally rated AI negatively, did not indicate using AI often, and strongly believed AI content should not be sold at conventions.

7. Do fans have anime-themed stickers on their possessions?

In 2023 and 2025, we asked whether fans had anime-themed stickers on their vehicle (“Do you have anime stickers on your vehicle (e.g., car, bike)?”) with responses of yes, no, and I don’t have a vehicle. As shown, most fans do not put stickers on their vehicle, and there is little change between these two samples. However, when asked whether they put anime-themed stickers on other possessions (responses either yes or no), a little over half (51.5%) said they did.

8. Do fans collect anime-themed pins?

We asked fans whether the owned anime pins (“Do you own anime-themed pins (e.g., enamel pins)?”) with responses of yes or no. About half (50.5%) indicated they did own a pin. A follow up item asked fans to rate how seriously they would say that take anime pin collecting as a hobby. As shown below, most fans do not seriously collect pins.

9. Do fans compare themselves with others?

Social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954) suggests that people have a tendency to compare themselves with others. We included a short, six item, measure of social comparison that assesses comparison of abilities (e.g., “I often compare how I am doing socially (e.g., social skills, popularity) with other people”) and opinions (e.g., “If I want to learn more about something, I try to find out what others think about it”) from prior research (Schneider & Schupp, 2014) on a 7-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). We compared anime fans to a community sample of Germans (N = 1,030) from Schneider and Schupp (2014, Study 2). The results showed that anime fans compared themselves to others significantly more than a community sample of Germans. This could suggest that anime fans do more regularly compare themselves to others, or, at very least, that they are more aware of the fact that they may do so (or are more willing to admit to it).

10. What are anime fans’ attachment style?

We included 12 items (Iwanaga et al., 2018) to assess the extent to which anime fans experience three different styles of attachment in their relationships (1 = not true, 7 = very true): secure (e.g., “I find it relatively easy to get close to other people”), anxious (e.g., “I worry that others won’t care about me as much as I care about them”), and avoidant (e.g., “I prefer to keep to myself”). We compared the ratings with undergraduate students at East Texas A&M University (N = 304). As shown below anime fans rated themselves significantly lower on all three attachment styles. However, the pattern of avoidant being the most prevalent style, followed by anxious and, finally, secure attachment, was observed for both samples. It may be worth contextualizing the above findings (regarding the number of anime fans not currently in romantic relationships) with respect to these data, namely the fact that avoidant attachment is the most common form of attachment style among the anime fans in our sample (who may well be actively avoiding the pursuit of relationships).

11. How sensitive are anime fans?

We included 12 items (Pluess et al., 2023) from a short “highly sensitive person” measure on a 7-point scale (1 = not at all, 7 = extremely). The measure contains three subscales, including ease of excitation (e.g., “Do you get rattled when you have a lot to do in a short amount of time?”), aesthetic sensitivity (e.g., “Are you deeply moved by the arts or music?”), and low sensory threshold (e.g., “Are you bothered by intense stimuli, like loud noises or chaotic scenes?”). We compared anime fans to Pluess et al.’s (2023, Study 1) community sample of 722 adults in the UK. Anime fans scored higher on ease of excitation, aesthetic sensitivity, and overall on the measure compared to the UK community sample. However, anime fans scored significantly lower on having a low sensory threshold. Thus, while fans are more sensitive in general, they have a higher tolerance for background noise.

12. Are anime fans psychologically rich?

We included a 12-item (e.g., “My life has been psychologically rich”) measure of well-being from Oishi et al. (2019), rated on a 7-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). We compared anime fans to a community sample of 1,562 U.S. adults (Oishi et al., 2019, Study 3). Anime fans scored slightly, but statistically significantly, lower than a community sample of U.S. adults.

13. How do fans rate their satisfaction with life this year?

Many years we measure fans’ satisfaction with life with a single item (“In general, I am satisfied with my life”) rated on a 7-point scale (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree). The results show a decrease in ratings compared to last year as part of a broader trend of decreasing life satisfaction over the past decade. This result may indicate a trend in younger adults growing increasingly dissatisfied with current economic opportunities.

14. How do fans rate their psychological well-being this year?

Over the years we have included a short, 6-item, measure (Reysen et al., 2020) of psychological well-being dimensions (Ryff, 1995) on a 7-point scale (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree): autonomy (“I make choices by myself without the help of others”), environmental mastery (“I have been able to create a lifestyle for myself that is much to my liking”), personal growth (“I seek out new experiences to grow as a person”), positive relationships (“I have warm and satisfying relationships with others”), purpose in life (“I feel I have purpose in life”), and self-acceptance (“In general, I feel confident and positive about myself”). The results of psychological well-being showed a similar trajectory as satisfaction with life. Anime fans showed a decline from 2023 to 2025. However, fans showed low ratings across the dimensions in 2022 similar in levels to this year. In other words, this year was not a “one-off” as they showed low ratings prior to this recent decline in psychological well-being coming out of the global pandemic.

15. How many fans are virgins?

We asked fans if they would feel comfortable answering questions related to issues involving sexuality. A total of 1,123 were willing to complete this section. The results that follow are from this subsample. 53.6% of respondents indicated having had sexual contact with another person. We also asked participants if they self-identified with the label of “gooner,” and found that 27.2% indicated they consider themselves gooners.

16. How positively / negatively do fans feel about sex and sexuality?

We asked fans to rate how positively / negatively they viewed sex and sexuality in general and within the fandom (Hagen & Rogge, 2022) on a 7-point scale (1 = not at all, 7 = extremely). As shown below fans are generally more positive than negative about sexuality in general. However, sexuality in the fandom is rated more negatively than sexuality in general, which may suggest that anime fans may have more mixed feelings about the inclusion of sexuality in fandom contexts.

17. Are anime fans sexually attracted to fantasy creatures / monsters?

We first asked fans to rate how sexually attracted they were toward fantasy creatures in general (“How sexually attracted are you to fantasy creatures / monsters?”) on a 7-point scale (1 = not at all, 7 = very much so). As shown below there was a small skew toward not being sexually attracted.

Fans next rated their sexual attraction toward 26 specific fantastical creatures (1 = not at all sexually attractive, 7 = very sexually attractive). The mean ratings are below.