When it comes to anime, One Piece is without a doubt one of the most popular anime of all time, with an action-comedy and mystery adventure plot.
One Piece’s story has won millions of hearts, across the world, and is still gaining new viewers to this day.
The anime series is very popular in India too. However, One Piece anime is not legally available in India.
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Why is One Piece not available in India?
One Piece is one of the world’s biggest anime franchises. So, to get One Piece streaming rights, the streaming platform will have to pay a large sum.
Previously in India, the One Piece anime did not get enough viewers and the show was pulled out. If the same happens now, the streaming platform will incur huge losses.
However, things are a bit different now. Over the past few years, the number of anime watchers has grown significantly (and is still growing) in India and we believe one piece has a great fan base here too!
So…One Piece Anime was Available in India?
Yes, One Piece was available in India. In 2006-2007. Cartoon Network India aired the 4Kids English and Hindi dubs of One Piece.
The show aired on weekdays from 5:30 pm – 6:00 pm until the end of Arlong Park Arc, after which it was closed.
It aired again on Saturdays and Sundays from 8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. (4 episodes per day) until Episode 82. Needless to say, dialogues in Hindi were heavenly censored.
The show was canceled due to its low popularity.
One Piece’s airing license was sold to Disney UTV Inc in 2013 after Turner International India’s license expired. Hungama TV (a subsidiary) premiered One Piece: The Movie at noon on May 4, 2013.
Popularity Details Of One piece in India
Let us get this straight – after a good amount of research and interviews with fans, we can not say that One Piece is the m anime in India right now but One Piece is one of the most popular anime in India.
The popularity of the series is high and maybe even more than Hunter X Hunter, Boruto, Code Geass, and even Death Note (all great animes btw) and we have data (later in the article) to back our statement.
The One Piece anime series is getting more popular by the day. Yet as it is not officially available in India, many viewers are just not able to watch it.
Here are the popularity trends according to a handful of tools –
1. Google Trends Data
In Google trends, we used Geolocation location as India and compared One Piece Anime with 4 of the most popular anime in India which are officially available. The trends have been increasing even though it is not officially available.
The search results also include, “One Piece India” and like the anime series, it is also increasing.
2. Google Search Volume
To check how many Indian search anything related to one piece on google we used google keyword planner. Here are the result –
One Piece’s monthly average search volume on Google (in India) is 100k-1M same as Naruto’s, and much much greater than Boruto. One Piece is not available in India. Naruto, Boruto does. Even comparing both series antagonist Kaido and Madara has the same search volume.
3. Twitter Data
Maximum One Piece fans are very active on Twitter so we used Twitter ads data to check the expected number of people who know about One Piece Fans in India.
As you see can see in the image above according to Twitter One Piece has an expected 2.8 M audience who know about One Piece. However, finding the exact number of One Piece fans is very difficult.
4. Facebook Data
We also used India’s most popular social media platform – Facebook to get a rough estimate of how many people know about One Piece.
According to Facebook India’s ads data, One Piece has an expected 14 M audience who knows about the series.
Now if we consider that only 10% of them regularly watch One Piece it will be 1M watchers in India alone.
Is One Piece Popular in India?
So is One Piece popular in India?
Well, if you believe the data provided by the world’s largest ad agency and the biggest social media platforms, then – YES!
It is easily among the top 5 most popular anime in India even when it is not officially available in the country!
So How many people watch One Piece in India?
Well, the easy answer is – the number is very high yet very hard to estimate.
To get a better idea of the ground reality We talked to different One Piece fans and fan clubs.
One such fan was who is Anish who is also an active member of an Anime Club. According to him –
“In Tier 1 City like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata has approx 50k fans where only 2% of the population lives in these cities. Maximum fans are from Tier 2, and Tier 3 Cities and remote villages too. So, I think at least 200k die-hard One Piece in India and if my analysis is wrong this may go somewhere near 500k.”
Also, lots of big news media including republic world, the times of India, and Forbes India recently covered One Piece’s latest chapter and episode News.
taking all that into account we estimate that there are approx 1 million One Piece Fans in India. Imagine what will be the number if the anime was officially available!
Will One Piece Anime be Available in India in the future?
Naruto is most popular in India and it is easily available on Netflix and also Crunchyroll. Even Sony Yay announced Naruto’s Hindi dub. From 2006-2008 One Piece was available in India but it did not get enough viewership. But since the pandemic, India has seen a sharp rise in Anime watchers.
Now, we can watch lots of anime on Muse Asia and Netflix. Crunchyroll has reduced their Subscription in India too! So, you can hope that we can watch One Piece India Soon!
And to bring One Piece to India soon we have even started a Petition to appeal to Toey Animation, Crunchyroll, Disney (Previous Owner), and Netflix to bring One Piece back. If you are from India and also love One Piece support us by signing this petition.
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