The works of Studio Ghibli hold a sacred place in the hearts of viewers all around the globe. Netflix — the primary streaming destination for Ghibli’s anime films outside of North America — has now made it clear which particular movie takes the crown for overall viewership on the platform.
Per What’s on Netflix, the iconic streaming platform recently released its global Engagement Reports for 2023-2025. After accessing viewership data from over 190 countries, Netflix compiled the results into a never-before-seen ranking of the platform’s highest-performing Ghibli titles.
The winner, by an extremely narrow margin, was Howl’s Moving Castle — a romantic fantasy released in 2004. The complete top 10 list can be viewed below.
Howl’s Moving Castle Beats Spirited Away as Studio Ghibli’s Most-Watched Film on Netflix
- Howl’s Moving Castle
- Spirited Away
- My Neighbor Totoro
- Ponyo
- Kiki’s Delivery Service
- The Secret World of Arrietty
- Earwig and the Witch
- The Boy and the Heron
- Princess Mononoke
- The Cat Returns
From 2023-2025, first-place winner Howl’s Moving Castle acquired a staggering 40.4 million views, just barely surpassing Spirited Away‘s even 40 million. This stat helped Howl lock in the #1 spot in spite of its watch hours, which sit at 80.4 million against Spirited Away‘s 83.5 million.
However, both films together locked in almost twice as many total watch hours as third-place winner My Neighbor Totoro, which acquired 44.5 million watch hours and 30.6 million views over the three-year window.
Howl’s Moving Castle is loosely based on Diana Wynne Jones’ 1986 novel of the same name. The film follows Sophie Hatter, a young woman who inhabits a nation while witches and wizards live alongside regular people. While some magic users serve the throne, others simply roam around causing chaos. After a tenuous confrontation with two city guards, Sophie is rescued by Howl — a handsome wizard rumored to steal beautiful women’s hearts.
Sophie and Howl’s romantic first meeting provokes a spiteful sorceress known as the Witch of the Waste, who curses Sophie with the appearance of an old woman. This prompts Sophie to seek refuge at Howl’s ‘castle,’– a dilapidated traveling structure powered by an irritable fire demon named Calcifer. While working as a cleaning lady, Sophie tries to find a way to break her curse while caring for her unusual band of housemates, which also include Howl’s young apprentice Markl and “Turniphead” the scarecrow.
Notably, the five highest-performing Ghibli works were all written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. While Ghibli’s Oscar award-winning co-founder is at the helm of most Ghibli productions, there are several exceptions.
Netflix’s fifth highest-viewed Ghibli film, The Secret World of Arrietty, was directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi. After working at Ghibli for nearly two decades, Yonebayashi ultimately went on to found Studio Ponoc (Mary and the Witch’s Flower) with ex-Ghibli producer Yoshiaki Nishimura.
In addition to Hiroyuki Morita’s The Cat Returns, Netflix’s top 10 also includes what is thought to be one of Ghibli’s most polarizing features. Released in 2020, Earwig and the Witch was directed by Hayao Miyazaki’s son, Goro, and is the first Ghibli film produced entirely with 3DCG animation.
Despite reportedly being praised by Goro’s father, Earwig’s art style was heavily scrutinized by critics. However, this has not stopped the flick from finding an audience on Netflix. From 2023-2025, the film amassed 18.7 million watch hours from over 13.4 million views.
In the U.S., Studio Ghibli’s films are available to stream on HBO Max.
- Release Date
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September 9, 2004
- Runtime
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119 minutes
- Producers
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Toshio Suzuki
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Chieko Baisho
Sophie (voice)
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Takuya Kimura
Howl (voice)
