Video-game IP has become one of the hottest sources for adaptations into animated TV and film content, Ampere Analysis found, with game-to-animation commissions jumping 137% year-on-year in 2024.
Per Ampere, games is now the third-largest source of animation adaptations for TV and films, only behind Manga (a distinct Japanese comic format) and books.
The fact that there’s significant overlap between enthusiast groups – where most animation fans are also gamers - might explain part of this global trend.
According to Ampere, 35% of internet users ages 18-64 identify themselves as fans of animation (or anime, as Ampere uses as shorthand for animation broadly, not to be confused with Japanese animated series often known simply as “anime” in the U.S. and elsewhere) and 83% of those anime fans are active gamers. Meanwhile, much of the source material comes from game-makers based in Japan.
Netflix over recent years has been the top single commissioner of this game-to-anime growth by title.
In April, for example, its anime adaptation of Capcom’s 24-year-old game title Devil May Cry ranked in the streaming service’s global top 10 for English-language series for two weeks. Well before that, in late 2021, Netflix’s animated licensed take on Riot Games’ Arcane: League of Legends spent nine weeks ranked in the top 10.
In fact, dating all the way back to the early days of Netflix’s original content business, there was 2017’s adaptation of Konami’s Castelvania.
While most of the top commissioners of game-to-animation content are Japanese companies converting their own game IP, Netflix stands out as adapting the most titles from 2020-2025 at 35.
Still, collectively, companies in Japan led game-to-animation adaptation, with Japanese commissioners like Bandai Namco, Kadokawa and Sony more than doubling their titles year-over-year in 2024. But other countries are also ramping up efforts.
Stepping back a few feet more, Netflix's approach to this type of content licensing has something to do with what management feels is one of its primary sources of competition for consumer attention, gaming.
Of course, Netflix doesn’t completely control the game-to-animation business in the U.S. Following the global success of Universal Pictures’ Super Mario Bros. Movie (worldwide box office revenue $1.36 billion) and Sonic the Hedgehog (Paramount Skydance grossed more than $1.2 billion across three Jim Carrey movies from 2020-2024), all major streaming companies, including Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple, commissioned animation titles based off games in 2024.
In addition to the potential to attract a younger audience (per Ampere, 46% of anime fans are under 34-years-old) producing animation tends to be significantly cheaper than shooting live-action content, the firm noted.
There’s also the audience power of proven game IP. As part of its report, Ampere scored the popularity of 17 Netflix animation titles based on games (with scores reflecting online engagement received by a title each month) and compared them to the scores of 69 Netflix animation titles not adapted from games. The game-based titles scored significantly higher in terms of audience reception.
Finally, for game makers, there’s a virtuous cycle to this adaptation. Ampere also found that monthly active users for game title Devil May Cry 5 jumped by 313% after the Netflix series release in April.
“Long-term audience expansion among anime fans and gamers will drive the growth of commissions in the coming years,” said Katie Holt, senior analyst at Ampere Analysis, in a statement. “While Japanese content has long been the first choice for adaptation, as anime fandom becomes more globalized, we will see a rise in animated adaptations from other sources — including from Western IP.”