Demon Slayer beats One Piece in major ratings, but it’s for one simple reason

Demon Slayer has crossed a huge milestone by surpassing One Piece’s rating on Crunchyroll, but there’s a very simple reason behind that.

While One Piece is a shonen giant reigning over the anime industry for nearly three decades now, Demon Slayer is a comparatively new addition to the genre. Yet, its popularity has steadily elevated it to one of the most-watched anime shows in the world.

Recently, the series has even managed to beat One Piece, which has a 4.9 rating on Crunchyroll with 520k votes. Demon Slayer has earned the same rating but has received votes from 523k users, thus surpassing the long-running shonen anime.

But while this is an amazing feat by Demon Slayer, it’s not entirely surprising. One Piece has over 1100 episodes and has been running for 25 years now, whereas Demon Slayer is fairly new, having debuted in 2019, and has more active fans online.

Besides, the daunting length of One Piece has many new viewers turning away from the anime. That’s not the case for Demon Slayer, which only has 56 episodes and one anime movie so far. This makes it a perfect show for beginners, adding to its growing fanbase.

Many are even blaming the pacing of One Piece’s anime adaptation for this. As one wrote on Reddit, “The anime has horrible pacing. If you want to try out One Piece, I recommend reading the first few chapters of the manga.”

“That’s correct. In anime format, Demon Slayer is superior to One Piece, but in the manga, it’s all the way around and it’s not even close. DS adaptation elevates the original material while OP downgrades it,” added another.

A third commented, “Many people don’t watch One Piece because of its long episode count, so yeah, Demon Slayer gonna have more since it’s a perfect starter anime.”

“It’s just sad that One Piece has to go through like 300 episodes to get a fight animated comparable to Gang vs UM6,” joined a fourth.

Though a higher viewership or rating doesn’t always promise superior content, it does send a signal about audience perception. Maybe both shows will take pointers from it and make necessary adjustments.

For more from the shonen genre, find out more about the Jujutsu Kaisen ending and the upcoming Elbaf Arc of One Piece. You can also check out our explainers on My Hero Academia ending and Demon Slayer’s Infinity Castle Arc.