PlayStation to Launch Crunchyroll Anime Hub on PS5 Home Screen in 2027

Sony will integrate Crunchyroll into the PlayStation 5 home screen in spring 2027, the company announced Wednesday at the inaugural Crunchyroll Anime Future Forum.

The new PS5 anime hub will place Crunchyroll's streaming catalogue directly inside the console's main interface, replacing its current standalone presence. Crunchyroll has been available on the PS5 through a downloadable app since the console launched in 2020.

What will the new hub include?

PlayStation president and CEO Hideaki Nishino unveiled the integration alongside the launch of Crunchyroll Storyworks, a new Sony division dedicated to anime production. The hub will give users a single entry point to Crunchyroll's membership catalogue and to anime-themed titles sold on the PlayStation Store.

"Anime and gaming have deeply engaged and overlapping fan communities, and the new experience will bring those worlds closer together on PS5," the Crunchyroll announcement reads. "Whether longtime anime fans or discovering a series through a game, character or world they already love, players will have a dedicated place to discover anime and anime-inspired games and easily access the full Crunchyroll app."

How does this extend the Sony-Crunchyroll partnership?

Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini framed the hub as the next step in a collaboration that already spans game-to-screen adaptations and bundled memberships. He cited the upcoming Ghost of Tsushima: Legends anime series as one example of work moving between the two platforms.

"From Crunchyroll membership on PlayStation, to the upcoming Ghost of Tsushima: Legends anime series," Purini said. "Today, we take that partnership with Sony Interactive Entertainment one step further with an anime hub on PlayStation. Serving fans means meeting them where they already are."

Where does this fit in Sony's broader PS5 strategy?

The anime hub follows the August debut of "Live TV on PS5," an offering of more than 100 free ad-supported streaming channels accessible through the console. Sony Pictures Television plans to expand that FAST channel lineup globally in the coming months, adding to a growing roster of non-gaming media services on the device.

Nishino and Purini delivered the announcement at the first-ever Crunchyroll Anime Future Forum, a new Sony-hosted gathering for industry discussion that the company is positioning alongside its established gaming showcases.

What is Crunchyroll Storyworks?

Sony described Storyworks as a production division intended to deepen the studio pipeline between its gaming franchises and anime releases. The unit will operate alongside, rather than within, existing Crunchyroll programming operations, though executives provided limited detail on its first slate of projects at the forum.

If the spring 2027 target holds, the PS5 will become the first major gaming platform to treat an anime streaming service as a native component of its home interface — a structural shift that gives Sony direct leverage over how its anime catalogue reaches one of the largest console audiences in the world.