Once you start to watch anime and realise how much content is out there you get blown away. Never mind the fact that everything new that comes out is in Japanese at the start. But don’t worry, I was in the exact same position as you.
First off, make sure you read the latest available statistics on anime found here at The Association of Japanese Animations (ATA). There are lots of useful information which is very informative such as ‘growth of anime over the years’ and ‘how many shows have been newly broadcasted in the year’. I was going to create an in-depth review of these statistics however I believe Anime Motivation did a great job so will just link to them.
Second, read the article ‘Top 5 Best Legal Anime Sites To Watch Worldwide‘ which gives an overview of the online anime streaming industry worldwide. In summary, there are two companies monopolising the anime streaming industry:
- Disney – who stream using Disney and through Hulu in which they bought in 2019.
- Sony – AT&T owns Crunchyroll and VRV is selling them both to Sony. Sony already owns Funimation and AnimeLab.
The other companies can be large as a whole but have a reduced catalogue of anime:
- AT&T – owns HBO Max and Adult swim.
- Netflix – has its own anime Netflix originals.
- Amazon – uses its platform Amazon Video for viewers to stream anime.
- Digital Media Rights – A private, independent company that owns Asian Crush and Midnight Pulp.
- Sentai Holdings LLC – own HiDive.
- Alphabet – own YouTube.
- Hitotsubashi Group – own VIZ Media.
- Tencent Music Entertainment Group – owns iFlix.
- Olympusat – own Toku.
In my experience being able to pinpoint the exact status of the anime industry by looking directly at each anime studio is very difficult.