Summary
- Nielsen Ratings cast doubt on Solo Leveling's dominance in anime.
- Dandadan made the top 100 for Adults 18-49, the only anime on this list.
- Nielsen may underrepresent true anime viewership, affecting Solo Leveling's true popularity in their ratings.
Fans of Solo Leveling are still riding high after its impressive performance in anime award shows and its record-breaking Season 2, which crashed streaming services multiple times with episode drops. Solo Leveling is seemingly conquering streaming platforms with its rapid rise, even managing to overtake One Piece on Crunchyroll to become the platform's most-rated anime series of all time.
However, a first-of-its-kind multi-platform Nielsen ratings were released in May that casts a shadow of doubt on Solo Leveling’s supposed dominance over the anime scene. In a surprising twist, the paranormal action series Dandadan became one of the top 100 shows in 2024-2025 for Adults 18-49, an honor that Solo Leveling was seemingly unable to replicate.
Will Solo Leveling Season 3 Address This Major Series Flaw?
Solo Leveling is commonly criticized for its lack of side character development. Will Season 3 address this?
The Nielsen Ratings
Dandadan’s Achievement
Nielsen Media Group recently released its famous Nielsen Ratings, a highly trusted industry fixture for over 50 years that tracks programming viewership across different periods by monitoring TV viewership nationwide. People across the US sign up to become Nielsen participants, whose watching preferences provide statistical data for the company. Nielsen then takes this data and publishes it in the form of ratings that estimate the viewership of different shows in the country.
While the Nielsen ratings have traditionally only covered network television, the September 2024 to April 2025 rating list includes, for the first time, the integration of streaming platforms into the same numbers. Unsurprisingly, in this environment of comparing all types of shows, anime series appear to be more niche in the grand scheme of things. No anime shows made the general top 100 most-watched shows in the 35-day period.
However, Dandadan managed to break into the Adults 18-49 Top 100. According to Variety's reporting, Dandadan attracted 2.6 million viewers within a 35-day timeframe, ranking it among the top 60 of the 100 most-watched shows in the United States. This is an impressive feat for an anime show, especially given that no other anime shows managed to crack the top 100 in the same way. However, these figures and this achievement by this popular action series might not be the whole story. It’s possible Solo Leveling is still a more popular show, given the methodology of the Nielsen Ratings.
Solo Leveling: Why Did the Ant King Use Ice Magic in His Final Battle?
During the season finale, the Ant King uses ice magic, but where did it come from?
Criticism of Nielsen Ratings
Why Solo Leveling May Still Be More Popular
Despite Nielsen ratings finally including streaming numbers in their data, notable absences have been pointed out by people online. White Box’s Anime By the Numbers disputes Dandadan’s high placement, contending that Nielsen still has a substantial blind spot for anime.
“But according to our analysis here at White Box over the past year, this doesn’t make much sense. Yes, this number is pretty similar to our best estimates of the unique U.S. Dan Da Dan piracy viewership in December 2024, to say nothing of the substantial Crunchyroll and Netflix legal views, or the additional January binge-watchers. But even so, Dan Da Dan was absolutely not the most-watched anime in the U.S. In this time period–not even close.” -An Anime By the Numbers analysis disputing conclusions of Dandadan’s popularity from the Nielsen Ratings.
According to an analysis by Anime By the Numbers, despite incorporating streaming viewers into their data, Nielsen is missing a substantial portion of viewership from individuals who choose to watch on Crunchyroll and those who watch shows through piracy. These exclusions are particularly hard on shows like Solo Leveling, which is a Crunchyroll-partnered show and is where an overwhelming number of fans are likely watching it from. Piracy is also still a popular form of watching anime series, which Anime By the Numbers estimates is more than twice as likely to occur as with non-anime television in the United States.
While Dandadan fans can celebrate this victory over the breakout success of Solo Leveling in the Nielsen ratings, they might have to do so with an asterisk over this achievement. If the Nielsen ratings are underrepresenting anime shows in the numbers, as some online speculators suggest, then the ratings will likely change if their data collection continues to improve. Still, the respected name of Nielsen will likely be a cause for celebration for some, as anime shows start to become serious contenders to mainstream network television. This is likely to become more normal as shows like Solo Leveling and Dandadan continue to garner a large number of viewers in the future.
Solo Leveling can be streamed on Crunchyroll and Amazon.
Solo Leveling
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- 2024 - 2025-00-00
- Network
- Tokyo MX, Gunma TV, BS11, Tochigi TV
A-1 Pictures' Solo Leveling is an anime based on Chugong's popular web novel. Set in an unforgiving fantasy world where hunters explore dungeons filled with monsters, the vulnerable Sung Jinwoo gains a significant power boost after he is picked to be a solo player by the System.
- Cast
- Taito Ban, Genta Nakamura, Haruna Mikawa, Reina Ueda, Daisuke Hirakawa, Hiroki Touchi, Banjo Ginga, Makoto Furukawa, Akio Otsuka, Akira Ishida, Yasuhiro Mamiya, Junichi Suwabe, Miyu Tomita
- Directors
- Tatsuya Sasaki, Toru Hamasaki
- Writers
- Shigeru Murakoshi, Shingo Irie, Fuka Ishii
- Main Genre
- Animation
- Seasons
- 1
- Studio
- A-1 Pictures
- Based On
- Manhwa
- Creator
- Chugong
- Number of Episodes
- 25
- Streaming Service(s)
- Crunchyroll
- MyAnimeList Score
- 8.28 (Season 1); 8.86 (Season 2)
- Creator(s)
- Chugong
- Where To Watch
- Crunchyroll
