Case Study: Crunchyroll achieves 12% ARPU lift and 5x faster experimentation with Amplitude

Driving engagement and ARPU for Crunchyroll’s 50-million streaming video users

Crunchyroll, the global leader in anime streaming with about 50 million users across Crunchyroll, VRV and partner brands, faced the challenge of moving beyond rapid growth to systematically optimize conversion and long‑term retention across freemium, SVOD and AVOD channels. The team needed faster product analytics to evaluate a new three‑tier pricing strategy, partner promotions and feature changes without over‑relying on data science.

Using Amplitude’s funnels, cohorts and A/B experiment views, Crunchyroll rapidly tested pricing tiers, partner campaigns and product features, uncovering which bundles and partners drove real retention and value. The effort delivered a 12% ARPU lift from the new pricing approach, a 5x faster build‑measure‑learn loop, an 8x retention difference between partners at six weeks, a 13% boost in minutes watched from a Discovery Engine, a +17% lift in subscription funnels after a quick bug fix, and the ability to answer ~9,000 questions per month.

Crunchyroll

Jerry Fan

Head of Growth