‘Solo Leveling' Breaks Its Final Crunchyroll Record; Season 3 Status
While we've seen many hugely popular anime offerings in the past few years, now, we seem to have landed on one that is simply bigger than all the rest, for better or worse.
That is Solo Leveling, and Sony has announced that the two seasons of the anime are not the most-viewed of all time on its Crunchyroll streaming service. This was revealed during its Business Segment Presentation & Fireside Chat for 2025, where a document within that said Solo Leveling was 'ranked #1 in Crunchyroll View Count History (as of the end of March 2025).'
So that was several months ago, and in the wake of the season 2 finale, which aired on March 29. That record was set immediately after, it seems.
The idea that Solo Leveling was the most-watched anime on the service has been a theory for a while, given that the series had become the most-reviewed on Crunchyroll, more so that even endless seasons of One Piece and that seemed like a strong hint that would be the case.
Well, it's one of the biggest animes ever already, so season 3 must be around the corner, right? Wrong. In what seems like a baffling development to some, there is no official news about Solo Leveling season 3, even if it seems like an inevitability. Those behind the show are even waffling about whether it continues, though I'm not sure I believe that.
Solo Leveling
What's going on? There are some ideas, and they mostly have to do with how the animation industry works. I found this informative take by u/electrical_chance991 a month ago in the Solo Leveling subreddit:
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'A1 pictures didn't expect SL to explode as big as they did, the staff members prob signed other contracts and projects even before SL aired, their work is booked for years. So it makes sense why the producer said it'll take up to 2028.'
'They don't wanna rush it out or change the studio, they want the same team to come back and that might take some time. But I'm sure now they're thinking of long term, I doubt after season 3 we will see any major breaks like this. They will be well prepared.'
That does make sense, as it would have been hard to predict success at this level, and it is not abnormal for animes to take long breaks between seasons. But the success of the show would create some urgency, though there does not appear to be a way around the current situation. As the post says, the hope would be that this wouldn't happen a second time now that they know how big the series is. But it will be years until season 3 gets here, Crunchyroll record or not.
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