PlayStation is preparing a more prominent place for anime on PS5. A dedicated Crunchyroll hub is planned for the console’s home screen in spring 2027, creating an on-console destination intended to help players find anime they enjoy, explore anime-inspired games and reach the full Crunchyroll app.

The crucial distinction is visibility rather than first-time availability. Crunchyroll has been available as a PS5 app since the console launched in 2020. The incoming hub is meant to put the service and related discovery tools closer to the part of the console players see before they launch a game or app. In other words, PS5 owners will not be getting a new console application so much as a new front door to an existing one.

What is coming to PS5

The planned anime destination is positioned as a dedicated area of the PS5 home-screen experience. PlayStation says its purpose is to make discovering and exploring anime content easier for the PlayStation community. It will also point players toward anime-inspired games and provide access to the complete Crunchyroll app.

That framing matters because there are several separate pieces in the announcement:

  • A home-screen hub: a dedicated PS5 destination rather than merely the existing standalone app tile.
  • Anime discovery: a route for players to find and explore anime content.
  • Game connections: a space acknowledging anime-inspired games and the crossover between game audiences and anime audiences.
  • Full-app access: the hub is expected to make it easier to open the full Crunchyroll app, not replace it.

No further details were provided about the hub’s visual layout, what individual shows or games may be spotlighted, whether recommendations will be personalized, or how the feature will differ by territory. Those are meaningful unanswered questions, especially for a discovery tool: its usefulness will depend on how clearly it surfaces relevant material without making the home screen feel crowded.

Why a home-screen placement is different from an app

On a modern console, an app is something a user deliberately chooses to open. A home-screen hub is part of the environment that guides that choice. The difference may sound cosmetic, but it can change the path from a player recognizing a character, series or game world to finding something new to watch.

In this case, PlayStation and Crunchyroll are explicitly addressing people who already move between both mediums. Someone may be a longtime anime viewer who wants a more convenient way to locate related games. Another player may first encounter a series through a character, a game or a fictional setting they already know, then use the hub as a route toward anime. The initiative is built around that overlap rather than treating gaming and streaming as wholly separate console activities.

Discovery, in platform terms, means the process of helping a user find content they did not arrive specifically intending to search for. A dedicated destination can offer a contextual path through a catalog; it is different from typing a title into a search field after already knowing exactly what to watch. PlayStation has confirmed the discovery goal, but not the mechanisms it will use to achieve it. Until more information is shared, it is best not to assume a particular recommendation system, content selection or game-to-show linkage.

Anime and games are the central connection

PlayStation described anime and gaming as communities with deep engagement and substantial overlap. The planned hub is the latest effort to pull those interests closer together within Sony’s broader entertainment ecosystem.

That approach is visible in the hub’s stated remit. It is not described only as a streaming shortcut, nor only as a promotional page for games. It is intended to serve both anime content and anime-inspired games, while directing people to Crunchyroll’s full application. The idea is a bridge: a player can come from the gaming side, an anime viewer can come from the viewing side, and each has a dedicated place to explore the adjacent interest.

Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini referenced Crunchyroll membership on PlayStation and the upcoming Ghost of Tsushima: Legends anime series when discussing the closer partnership with Sony Interactive Entertainment. That series is a notable example of the wider strategy described here: a PlayStation-associated game property extending into anime, while the PS5 itself becomes a place where viewers and players can encounter both sides.

The announcement was made by PlayStation president and CEO Hideaki Nishino at the inaugural Crunchyroll Anime Future Forum. Sony also used that event to unveil Crunchyroll Storyworks, a new division. The available details do not establish what Storyworks will do or whether it will have a direct role in the PS5 hub, so the two developments should be viewed as parallel announcements rather than as confirmed parts of one product feature.

What the announcement does—and does not—mean for players

For PS5 owners who already use Crunchyroll, the practical promise is a more visible way to get to anime-related material from the console interface. For players who do not currently use the app, the hub could make the service easier to notice and explore. It may also make sense for people whose interest in anime starts with games, particularly when they want a clearer path from a familiar character or world toward animated content.

However, the announcement does not say that a Crunchyroll membership is included with PS5, that PS5 owners will receive exclusive programming, or that the hub changes the underlying Crunchyroll app’s access model. It also does not specify whether viewing any particular content requires a paid membership. The confirmed point is access to the full app through a more integrated PS5 experience; it is not a newly detailed subscription offer.

Likewise, “anime-inspired games” is a broad description, not a disclosed list of supported titles. Players should not read it as confirmation that any specific game will obtain a dedicated integration, that a title will link to a matching series, or that game purchases and streaming access will be bundled together.

For now, the most reasonable expectation is modest but potentially useful: a better-organized entry point at the PS5 dashboard for people whose game and anime habits already overlap. The feature’s eventual value will be determined by information still to come, including the regions included at launch and the exact breadth of its catalog and game discovery functions.

A larger entertainment push on PS5

The Crunchyroll integration arrives after PlayStation introduced Live TV on PS5, a lineup of more than 100 free, ad-supported video channels. That FAST offering debuted in August, and Sony Pictures Television has plans to expand it globally in the coming months.

FAST stands for free ad-supported streaming television. It generally refers to streaming channels supported by advertising rather than a conventional paid television package. PlayStation’s Live TV offering and the planned Crunchyroll destination are distinct services with different stated purposes: one centers on free, ad-supported channels, while the other is an anime-focused hub tied to Crunchyroll and its app. Together, though, they show PS5 continuing to add entertainment options alongside its game library.

That does not mean the console is abandoning its gaming focus. The new anime destination is specifically framed around the relationship between games and anime. Rather than simply adding another video tile, PlayStation is presenting the hub as an intersection of two active fan communities. The difference is important: a general streaming feature seeks viewers, while this one is designed to speak to users whose interests may already cross between playing and watching.

It also fits the broader expectation that console home screens function as gateways to many types of media. A player can start a game, watch video or move between both without leaving the device. The announced hub aims to reduce the friction between those activities for a particular audience. Whether it succeeds will hinge on execution, but its purpose is clearly more targeted than a generic entertainment shelf.

When to expect it

The Crunchyroll anime hub is scheduled for spring 2027. PlayStation has not supplied a more precise release date in the announced information, and no rollout timetable by country or region was specified.

Until then, Crunchyroll remains accessible on PS5 through the existing app. The future hub is the planned home-screen layer that will make Crunchyroll and anime-related discovery more directly reachable from the console interface. For more PlayStation ecosystem news, see our coverage of Troy Baker’s comments on an earlier opening concept for The Last of Us Part II.