It’s the End of an Era for Crunchyroll as Free Streaming Option to Be Removed Soon

It’s going to be the end of an era for Crunchyroll as they have announced that they will soon be putting an end to their free, ad-supported streaming option for anime shows by the end of the year. Crunchyroll is about to kick off a whole new year of promising anime releases with not only exclusive licenses for major returning shows, but also some brand new ones as well. As fans get ready to check out a whole new year of shows, some of those fans won’t be able to be a part of the ride with the loss of its ad-supported option.

If you head to Crunchyroll to check out any of the anime that are currently within the ad-supported AVOD catalog (which has select anime series that fans can watch entirely for free with ads), you’ll be met with a message (as spotted by fans on Reddit) revealing that “Ad-supported streaming ends December 31, 2025. Upgrade now to ensure your viewing is 100% ad-free and uninterrupted.” Marking the end of the free streaming era with Crunchyroll unless the streaming service decides to activate the option again after this end date.

What Does This Mean for Crunchyroll?

Crunchyroll has been through a lot of changes over the years as the streaming service did offer free ad-supported streaming for its entire library for quite a while. But things started to shift in the 2020s, with the first significant change happening a few years ago when it was revealed that they would no longer be offering ad-supported versions of their then newest airing shows like before. But instead would be offering a select AVOD library of major shows across multiple genres. Though many shows had been added to this library over the years, it was still more limited than before.

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It was still a great endeavor for those fans who watched these select shows entirely for free with ads playing in between breaks, but now even this option is set to come to an end on December 31st. It’s yet to be revealed as to whether it means its free streaming option is going to be removed from the service entirely after this date, or if the streamer potentially has any plans to kick off a new service. But either way, this is something fans need to keep an eye on.

What Does This Mean for Anime’s Future?

Anime is in a better place than it ever has been as there are more fans keeping up with each new show that ever before. There are tons of new anime series making their premieres every few months, and many of them are considered to be in such high quality that they end up as the best of the year. But as many more fans are drawn to the medium, it does come across as a bit of a bummer to end one of the final few free options there are with a platform that’s as widespread and popular as Crunchyroll.

Fans are going to keep a close eye on this December 31st date to see what’s next for Crunchyroll, and whether or not this truly means free streaming will be gone from the platform forever or just comes back in a different form. What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!