Solo Leveling Remains In Top-5 On OTT Despite No New Season Around: Decoding Its Popularity

Solo Leveling Remains In Top-5 On OTT

As per a 2023 report, India has been tipped as the second-biggest anime consumer globally after the US. The study, done by Crunchyroll, stated that roughly there are 118 million viewersof anime across several platforms in the country. An estimated fan base growth of 60% in the forthcoming years was also mentioned in the report.

So, it's not surprising why Solo Leveling has struck a chord with the people of India, but it being such a monstrous hit is somewhat unimaginable. As per JustWatch, a worldwide-known streaming guide, the webtoon adaptation has stayed in the top 5 for over a month this year despite having no new season around to be released. From March 10, 2025, to April 20, 2025, it stayed within the five top spots with the series reaching the peak in the March 24-April 13 period.

Solo Leveling: Boasts Great IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes Ratings

Before its Crunchyroll premiere on January 6, 2024, Solo Leveling was shown in Mumbai's PVR Maison Theatre onDecember 20, 2023, where it received a thundering response boasting an awesome 8.6/10 rating on IMDb (73K votes) and 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Ever since then, the series has seen an exponential rise in its fame in India.

So much so that the 6th episode of season 2 caused websites and apps to crash across the world. The beautifully crafted sequences showcasing the epic battle between Sung Jin-woo and Igris against Kargalgan killed the servers, which recovered only to crash again. People took to Reddit to express how they could watch the episode after waiting for a full three hours and even then it lagged in speed.

Don't Miss: Top 5 Websites To Watch Free Anime With English Subtitles

Critics and fans have hailed Solo Leveling for its compelling and classic power fantasy narrative, enthralling action scenes, and a powerful protagonist. Sung Jinwoo's transformational rise from a weak hunter to a god-like entity kept fans engaged throughout the show.

Further, the world makers have built doesn't reveal it all, leaving viewers with a strong curiosity about what's to come next. Another big reason why Solo Leveling has resonated so much is because it stays true to the source material, the manhwa, which itself has a separate fan base.

Solo Leveling: Why The Anime Is Such a Monstrous Hit

A YouTube channel named Probably Pretentious that claims to have "an unhealthy obsession with all things anime" tried to untangle why Solo Leveling just works. It stated that apart from being a power fantasy, the anime has Sung Jinwoo doing some cool, fun stuff all the time and good-looking action, but its immense popularity has reasons other than that.

The anchor said that Solo Leveling clicks because of two factors: Its production value, which is significantly better than the industry average, and the makers' ability to strike the perfect balance between self-indulgent power fantasy tropes and an overall decent story.

Rosa Perez of CBR lists out 10 reasons why Solo Leveling is the most popular anime of 2025. A fantastic underdog story and avoiding fanservice tropes, as mentioned before, and an easy watch with nothing to ponder much makes the anime such a favourite among fans, she states.

Probably Pretentious also noted that Solo Leveling doesn't make you an armchair philosopher, and this breezy element contributes to his expanding fan base.

But Perez specifically mentioned how the English voice actors did an awesome job on the show. Now, we have ample examples of badly-dubbed English versions of anime, like Pokémon, Speed Racer, Garzey's Wing, and One Piece, among others, and we know how that can break the show.

But, the voice actors for Solo Leveling take the feel so many notches higher, feels Perez, "particularly Aleks Le as Sung Jinwoo. Le manages to deliver a dynamic and powerful portrayal of the character that is up to par with the performance of Taito Ban (Jinwoo’s Japanese voice actor)."

Having said that, not all are admirers of Solo Leveling. There are several threads on Reddit that attempt to burst the hype. An account by the name BlackMagister said, "It has good art and action, but none of the characters or story were memorable," while another named N0rTh3Fi5t stated, "I've read a fair bit of the series. At no point did I think it was particularly outstanding, but people were always going crazy about it in the weekly threads. Sometimes, things are just popular."

Whatever the case, the aura around Solo Leveling is here to stay or so it seems. All its episodes are available to stream on Crunchyroll with season 3 reportedly pitched for a January 2026 release.

Don't Miss: Watch These 5 Drama Anime Series This Weekend With Your Girls

If you liked the story, please share it. For more such articles, stay tuned to HerZindagi.