Anime and gaming have always shared the same audience. But somewhere around 2021, publishers stopped treating that overlap as a marketing footnote and started building entire event seasons around it. Today, dropping a Goku skin in Fortnite or running a Jujutsu Kaisen operator bundle in Call of Duty isn't a novelty — it's a business strategy that moves millions of dollars in cosmetics within the first 48 hours.
This is the complete breakdown of where anime and gaming collided hardest in 2025 and 2026, and what it means for both industries going forward.
Fortnite: The King of Anime Collabs
No game has done more to legitimise anime crossovers in mainstream gaming than Fortnite. Epic Games understood early that their player base skewed young and anime-literate, and they've exploited that overlap relentlessly.
Dragon Ball was the collab that proved the format could go truly global. The 2022 event brought Goku, Vegeta, Beerus, and Bulma into Fortnite with fully animated in-game sequences. The Kamehameha item let players actually fire the iconic beam attack. It wasn't just a skin drop — it was a themed event that made the island feel like it belonged to the Dragon Ball universe for two weeks. Toei Animation and Epic worked together directly, and the result showed what happens when the IP holder is genuinely invested rather than just licensing the name.
Naruto followed with multiple waves across 2021 and 2022 — Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Gaara, and Itachi all received dedicated skins with accurate cosmetics and signature emotes. Naruto's Shadow Clone jutsu as a gameplay mechanic was a small touch that long-time fans immediately recognised and appreciated. The collab was so successful it ran twice.
My Hero Academia brought Deku, Bakugo, and All Might into the game. What made this one particularly interesting was the timing — it ran alongside the anime's final season push, essentially using Fortnite as a marketing amplifier for the show's conclusion.
One Piece continued the pattern with a Luffy skin that coincided with the live-action Netflix series launch in 2023. The timing was deliberate: anyone who discovered One Piece through Netflix and then opened Fortnite found Luffy already waiting for them there. Cross-promotional strategy doesn't get much cleaner than that.
By 2025, Fortnite's anime collab schedule has become so reliable that dedicated communities now track leak patterns to predict the next IP before it's announced. The going assumption is that if a major anime has a film, final season, or Netflix adaptation incoming, a Fortnite collab is somewhere in the pipeline.
Call of Duty: Anime in a War Zone
Activision's approach is different from Fortnite's. Call of Duty doesn't do platformwide events — it does operator bundles, and those bundles can be brutal in terms of pricing. A single anime-themed operator bundle typically runs $20–$25 in the in-game store. Despite the cost, these bundles consistently top sales charts when they drop.
Attack on Titan was the most striking collab Call of Duty has done. Levi Ackerman and Mikasa Ackerman appeared as fully voiced operators in Warzone with their Scout Regiment gear intact. The ODM gear was adapted into a finishing move animation that was technically impressive — recreating the rapid cable movement within a first-person shooter's framework is not straightforward. The collab felt considered. Fans who had spent years watching Levi operate in three dimensions suddenly had an analogue for that in a game built around verticality.
Jujutsu Kaisen landed in 2023 with Gojo Satoru and Sukuna bundles. Gojo's Infinity ability was referenced in the bundle's loading screen animations. These bundles sold out of their digital allocation within the first week of availability.
What Call of Duty's approach highlights is a different commercial model: Fortnite drives volume through accessible pricing in a free-to-play environment, while Call of Duty drives premium revenue from a dedicated segment willing to pay significantly more for high-production cosmetics they actually feel good about using.
Blue Lock × Football Games: The Ego Strikers Enter eFootball
Blue Lock's rise as a breakout sports anime inevitably attracted the attention of football game publishers. eFootball (formerly Pro Evolution Soccer) ran a Blue Lock collaboration event where players could unlock Isagi, Bachira, and Nagi as playable characters with their in-universe stats mapped to eFootball's attribute system.
The collab was genuinely interesting to watch unfold because it forced the question: how do you translate the concept of "ego" into a football video game's mechanics? eFootball's answer was a special "Flow State" boost triggered when players performed stylistically aggressive moves — quick dribbles, audacious through balls — that rewarded the Blue Lock style of play rather than conventional possession football.
It was a case of the collaboration actually understanding the source material rather than just slapping character art over existing menus.
Mobile Games: Where Anime Collabs Live and Die
The mobile gaming space runs anime collabs at a pace that makes console game events look leisurely. PUBG Mobile, Free Fire, and Mobile Legends collectively run dozens of anime-licensed events every year.
PUBG Mobile × Jujutsu Kaisen brought Gojo, Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara into the game as limited-time skins alongside JJK-themed weapon wraps and parachute designs. The event ran globally and reportedly drove significant player retention during what is typically a slower seasonal period for the game.
Free Fire × One Piece went further by building a themed map zone based on the Marineford arc. Players who entered the zone encountered environmental details — navy warships, wanted posters, and the Marineford aesthetic — that rewarded fans of the anime specifically. It was one of the more imaginative mobile game collabs in recent memory because it integrated the IP into the game's world rather than just offering cosmetics.
Mobile Legends × Jujutsu Kaisen ran a skin event in early 2026 that included voice lines recorded by the original Japanese cast. Getting the actual voice actors involved rather than using sound-alikes is a significant production investment, and fans noticed immediately.
Identity V × Studio Ghibli: The Unlikely Crossover
NetEase's asymmetric horror game Identity V has built a reputation for unexpected anime and animation collabs. Their partnership with Studio Ghibli — specifically a limited crossover with Spirited Away characters — stands apart from every other collab on this list because Ghibli almost never licenses their IP for this kind of use.
Chihiro, No-Face, and Yubaba appeared as limited skins. The event ran for three weeks in select Asian markets. It sold out of its gacha allocation rapidly. The wider point it made: the appetite for anime x game crossovers has reached a point where even studios historically protective of their properties are willing to engage with the format under the right conditions.
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero and the Collab-Within-a-Franchise Problem
Not every anime x game relationship is a crossover collab. Sometimes the game is the anime. Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero released in late 2024 to strong sales and significant fan goodwill as the spiritual successor to the beloved Budokai Tenkaichi series. It's not a collab — it's a licensed title built from the ground up around Dragon Ball's universe.
What Sparking Zero illustrates is a different model: deep, dedicated licensed games rather than timed event crossovers. The game lets players explore the full Dragon Ball timeline in battle, from Raditz's arrival on Earth to the Tournament of Power and beyond. For fans, this is arguably more satisfying than a Goku skin in another game's engine — it feels like Dragon Ball on its own terms.
The commercial data suggests both models can coexist. Sparking Zero's launch proved there's still an audience for serious franchise games, while Fortnite's Dragon Ball event proved there's an equal or larger audience for casual cross-IP moments.
What's Coming Next
Based on current IP momentum and upcoming release schedules, the most likely anime x game collabs for the second half of 2026 are:
Demon Slayer — A Fortnite collab has been anticipated for years and has never materialised, which suggests either ongoing negotiation complexity or deliberate timing for a major release window. With the Infinity Castle Arc film running globally right now, the window for a crossover is open and very wide.
Chainsaw Man — The property is a natural fit for a mature-rated game event. A Call of Duty or Apex Legends collab with Chainsaw Man's aesthetic would land extremely well with the 18–30 demographic those games serve.
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End — Less obvious than the action properties, but Frieren's visual style would translate beautifully into a fantasy RPG event. Final Fantasy XIV or Genshin Impact would be natural hosts.
Blue Lock Season 2 — A follow-up eFootball event is almost certain given how well the first collab performed. Expect it to run alongside the Season 2 broadcast window.
Why This Matters Beyond the Sales Numbers
The scale of anime x game collabs has reached a point where it's reshaping how IP is managed. Rights holders who might previously have licenced only to dedicated anime games are now negotiating with Western publishers for short-duration event slots. The economic incentive is clear — a two-week Fortnite event generates royalty revenue that a dedicated mobile game might take years to accumulate.
For fans, the collabs are a form of cultural validation. Seeing Levi Ackerman in Call of Duty or Luffy in Fortnite signals that these characters have cleared the threshold from niche interest to genuine mainstream recognition. It also creates entry points — a Fortnite player who spends two weeks using a Naruto skin is statistically more likely to give the anime a chance afterwards.
The pipeline isn't slowing. If anything, the deals are getting bigger and the events are getting longer. Anime and gaming have stopped being parallel industries and started becoming the same industry wearing different clothes.
Which anime x game collab are you most hoping to see happen? Drop it in the comments or reach out through our contact page.
