Anime Fans Rally Against Crunchyroll’s Store Closure and Paywall on Physical Merchandise
Crunchyroll has chosen a particularly controversial moment to announce a significant change that has left many fans frustrated. This week, the anime streaming platform revealed it will be shutting down its online store for physical merchandise, replacing it with a new shopping experience that requires a costly monthly subscription. This decision has sparked calls for boycotts, as fans worry that finding anime Blu-rays will become even more challenging, especially with Sony’s plans to phase out physical discs on PlayStation.
In their announcement, Crunchyroll stated, “This August, we are transitioning the Crunchyroll Store to a brand-new shopping experience that will be available exclusively for Mega and Ultimate Fans. The new store captures the excitement of convention-exclusive merchandise—collectibles, curated drops, and limited-release products inspired by the anime series you love.”
Crunchyroll offers three subscription tiers, with the Mega and Ultimate options priced at $14 and $18 per month, respectively. The revamped store seems to be banking on the fear of missing out (FOMO) and targeting its biggest spenders with limited releases, rather than providing a well-stocked selection of merchandise accessible to all. Meanwhile, the platform is clearing out its existing inventory, including steel case Blu-ray anime sets, through a summer sale.
This shift has raised concerns that Crunchyroll, now under Sony’s ownership, is tightening its grip on the anime market, potentially limiting options for physical media as an alternative to streaming. Earlier this year, Crunchyroll acquired the Iowa-based online anime retailer The Right Stuf International and subsequently merged it into its own store.
One user on Reddit expressed frustration, stating, “Let’s be real, the store was dead anyway; there’s so little in stock or available for order. Just remember that Right Stuf died for this and go shop somewhere else instead like Merry Manga, InStockTrades, or Roberts Anime Corner. Support the guys who care and not whatever this is.” Another thread gaining traction on the Anime subreddit has urged users to abandon Crunchyroll altogether, linking the changes to Sony’s recent announcement about discontinuing game discs by 2028.
“Don’t subscribe to them, don’t buy from them, nothing,” one commenter wrote. “They do not deserve any money from customers they’ve time and time again treated poorly, and it’s disgusting how much of a monopoly they hold over anime in North America. They will continue to do this because people let them get away with it by paying them. This goes double for what they’re doing with physical games on PlayStation.”
This backlash follows Crunchyroll’s recent subscription price hike, the first in seven years, amid ongoing consolidation in the anime streaming space, which saw Sony acquire Funimation in 2021 and subsequently close it after merging its content with Crunchyroll. Fortunately, while the market may be consolidating, Blu-ray discs are likely to remain more resilient than PlayStation discs, even as fans face dwindling choices overall.
