The numbers are in from a variety of sources, and adult animation is continuing to show it’s prowess on streamers with 20th Television Animation leading the way with it’s recently renewed trio of Animation Domination’s Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, and American Dad. Not too far behind, the now re-named streamer HBO MAX is boasting zero original series in the Top 20 of Nielsen’s recent minutes-watched report for the first six-months of 2025, but they are sporting some good numbers from soon-to-be former acquisition South Park managed to crack the top four original series streamed thus far. This is good news as reports swirl on the Paramount+ and South Park lawsuit soon coming to an end which means Paramount+ could (once again) be the exclusive home of the show giving the streamer a workhorse in the future rankings:
Hulu still has a busy slate of original adult animation coming in the second half of 2025 with the likes of King of the Hill, Futurama, and Solar Opposites readying new seasons.
Netflix doesn’t share their numbers with Nielsen, but offers up its own reports of strength with anime now being watched by 50% of the network’s user base. Moreover, 80% of Netflix subscribers prefer to watch anime in their native dubbed languages and Netflix original animated dramas like Sakamoto Days, Castlevania, Devil May Cry, and others have cracked the top-10 most-watched anime series for the first six months of 2025. So, not only is this showing that original anime is working, but gaming adaptations that produce original anime are also working which shows why Netflix is continuing to mine games for animated and live-action adaptations including Splinter Cell: Deathwatch which is expected to hit this fall for the streamer.
Last, but not least, we’re nearing the end of an eighth season of Rick and Morty which is currently bombing in the cable ratings overnight. The show kicked off its season with an average that’s below 400,000 viewers in the overnight rating in the first four weeks, another drop off of the show’s just north of 400,000 viewers average last season which was already its lowest. In fact, numbers for Rick and Morty are so low that TV Ratings Guide isn’t even tracking anymore as they usually stop tracking overnights for series whose viewership dips below 300,000 viewers which seems to be where the show will end up by the end of the year.
Even with the show kicking off the eighth season with slightly more critical acclaim audiences are continuing to clamor for his return to the show with the audience ratings in the shitter according to Collider. Internationally the show does well because non-English speaking countries didn’t change the voice actors for their principle characters which is why Rick and Morty does better overseas, but since there is no next-day streaming strategy for Rick and Morty in the United States, the show’s sole metric, cable ratings, are telling. Moreover, even Justin’s replacement actors, Ian and Henry, have admitted that they can’t replicate Justin’s talents.
The numbers don’t lie. Adult animation and anime are doing just fine for the first half of 2025 everywhere when it comes to streamers, but Adult Swim is learning the hard way what happens when you fire your best creatives for what turns out to be no particular reason.