While no official press release has been shared yet, a series of tweets by Anime News Network Executive Editor Lynzee Loveridge revealed that both streaming platforms will be raising their prices soon.
According to Loveridge, Funimation is going to increase its prices from USD 99.99 to USD 149.99 per year. However, there’s no official word on if this will apply to all subscribers or only to new ones. In the next series of tweets, Loveridge shared that Crunchyroll will also increase prices in select countries and regions. It’s believed that the price increase will affect Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Mexico, and some or all countries in the Eurozone. This is based on a Reddit discussion thread where subscribers shared how they received an email regarding pricing updates. Loveridge cites that an email update from Crunchyroll mentioned how its price adjustment in select countries is a “necessary step to achieve completion of the unification” of Crunchyroll and Funimation. Aside from emails, an update on the Crunchyroll website also acknowledged that updated prices will be reflected on October 31, 2022, for existing customers. Meanwhile, new customers can see the prices starting September 26, 2022. Also Read: The Best Anime Coming to Crunchyroll in Fall 2022
This price increase is unexpected considering that Crunchyroll rolled back its subscription cost in over 100 countries just recently. This might have been adjusted to entice new subscribers in other regions. Meanwhile, the reported cost increase for Funimation is a big one, and there seems to be no word yet on why there is such a big price jump for yearly subscriptions. A likely explanation for the Crunchyroll and Funimation increase in prices is the plan to combine both platforms into one, thus making a platform with a massive library. Back in 2021, Sony acquired the streaming service Crunchyroll, but at the time, Sony already owned Funimation. So, it didn’t come as much of a surprise when it was announced that the two streaming services will be merged under one brand. While the two are confirmed to combine sometime soon, there’s no info yet on if only one of the brands will be retained, or how the pricing will be affected. However, given how the prices are increasing, it’s likely that a subscription for the merged services will be noticeably more expensive.
