HiAnime Confirms Permanent Closure As Anime Industry Continues Anti-Piracy Crackdown
The popular unofficial streaming website HiAnime has officially confirmed its permanent closure after nearly three months of downtime.
This development is part of a massive global push by copyright holders and government officials to eliminate unauthorized anime and manga hosting platforms.
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry published a report in 2025 revealing a staggering 2.3 trillion yen (approx. $15.1 billion USD) loss for the industry.
This massive figure represents a 150% increase compared to piracy-related losses recorded in 2022.
The government report specifically cited this recently closed website as a major contributor to the ongoing financial damage.
The platform initially went dark in March, though administrators on the official community Discord channel originally assured viewers that the service would eventually return.
Staff members urged their loyal fanbase to ignore unverified rumors while they attempted to resolve the issues.
Those plans have now been completely abandoned after an 80-day struggle.
The community management team recently released a statement explaining that they spent the last few months trying to contact the main website developers to discuss a potential rebranding.
Because all communication channels went unanswered, the team concluded that the platform will not be returning and operations have permanently ceased.
Despite the complete shutdown of the hosting service, the remaining staff members plan to transition the existing Discord server into a general, user-focused discussion space for anime fans.
This closure follows a wider industry trend fueled by immense pressure from Japanese publishers and massive streaming companies.
Entertainment giants such as Netflix, Disney+, and Crunchyroll have formed alliances with major publishers like Shueisha to aggressively target these unauthorized outlets.
This aggressive strategy has already resulted in the permanent removal of several other prominent platforms, including 9anime, Sflix, Watchseries, and Fmovies.
Earlier in January, Kakao Entertainment successfully traced and eliminated the notorious manga piracy hub Bato.to.
Kakao Entertainment is well known as the publisher behind Solo Leveling, a massively successful South Korean web novel and webtoon that follows a weak hunter who unlocks a unique ability to endlessly upgrade his skills.
Another massive unofficial platform known as AnimeKai also ceased operations back in May.
The administrators of that site posted a final message urging users to back up their personal watchlists and find a new home for their viewing habits.
While facing intense political pressure, AnimeKai reportedly suffered catastrophic technical difficulties.
Many dedicated users heavily suspect that the sudden disappearance of the site was directly connected to a major wildfire that devastated data centers in Almere, The Netherlands.
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