Demon Slayer Swordsmith Village Arc Declared The Most Watched Anime Show In Japan In 2023
The final episode garnered 15.4 million average viewers a 22.8 million peak. The Entertainment District arc compilation film ranks #2.
According to Video Research Co., Ltd., a Japanese marketing research company that measures audience viewership for television and radio nationwide, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Swordsmith Village Arc is found to be 2023’s most viewed anime in Japan, with the final episode garnering 15.4 million viewers.
It is followed by Demon Slayer once again, with the Entertainment District compilation film averaging 10.3 million viewers and Sazae-san with 9.9 million viewers.
The top 5 most watched anime shows/episodes in Japan for the year 2023 are as follows:
| Rank | Anime Title | Broadcaster | Average No. of Viewers |
| 1 | Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Swordsmith Village arc, Final Episode | Fuji TV | 15.4 million |
| 2 | Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Entertainment District arc film | Fuji TV | 10.3 million |
| 3 | Sazae-san | Fuji TV | 9.96 million |
| 4 | Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Episode 1 | Nippon TV | 7.94 million |
| 5 | Detective Conan | Nippon TV | 6.99 million |
The average number of viewers is an estimate of the average number of people who watched the programme during its broadcast time.
The figures are estimated by multiplying the overall viewing rate of individuals aged 4 and above in 32 districts nationwide by the expanded estimation master (*).
The ‘overall average number of viewers’ indicates the average number of viewers in either real-time or time-shifted viewing.
Video Research Ltd. is a data and systems company that supports the video business, including television. It was established in 1962 as a research organisation providing TV ratings data, and since then has been providing cutting-edge data including various media data and marketing data, including TV ratings surveys in Japan, to provide total support in solving corporate marketing issues.
About Demon Slayer:
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Koyoharu Gotouge. It was serialized in Shueisha’s shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from February 2016 to May 2020, with its chapters collected in 23 tankōbon volumes.
The 26-episode 1st season by Ufotable was broadcast from April to September 2019. October 2020 saw the release of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train, a sequel that became the highest-grossing anime film and Japanese film of all time.
Demon Slayer entered its second season with 18 episodes, which debuted in October 2021 and concluded in February 2022, covering the Entertainment District arc. Concurrently, in February 2023, a compilation film titled Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – To the Swordsmith Village was released. From April 2023 to June 2023, a third season consisting of eleven episodes was broadcast, showcasing the Swordsmith Village arc.
Crunchyroll describes the overall plot of Demon Slayer as follows:
It is the Taisho Period in Japan. Tanjiro, a kindhearted boy who sells charcoal for a living, finds his family slaughtered by a demon. To make matters worse, his younger sister Nezuko, the sole survivor, has been transformed into a demon herself. Though devastated by this grim reality, Tanjiro resolves to become a “demon slayer” so that he can turn his sister back into a human, and kill the demon that massacred his family.
Source: Video Research official site
