Crunchyroll Makes Bizarre Decision To Limit Its Online Store To Subscribers Only

If you’re running a store, whether in the physical world or online, the most crucial thing you must have is a steady stream of customers, right? You would want as many as possible. Consequently, you would avoid doing anything that could potentially chase some customers away. The very LAST thing you’d do would be to wall off the store entirely and demand a fee just to get inside. With competition around, who would pay?

Crunchyroll, who we report on a lot around here, has just made one of the most baffling announcements of any company in 2026, and that’s saying a lot. They are soon going to be limiting access to their online store and the only people who can shop at it will be members of their Mega and Ultimate Fans subscription plans. This puts a barrier of at least $13.99 per month for the privilege to just browse.

“This August, we are transitioning the Crunchyroll Store to a brand-new shopping experience that will be available exclusively for Mega and Ultimate Fans,” they say. “The new store captures the excitement of convention-exclusive merchandise—collectibles, curated drops, and limited-release products inspired by the anime series you love.” In other words, the theory is that since their customers like collecting stuff that only appears at places like SDCC, they would pay to have that experience at home. But life doesn’t work that way.

Crunchyroll does not mention when this policy will go into place, but they suggest it will be soon after their 50% off Summer Sale ends. There’s no way this can’t end in disaster for them; this is not how you compete with Amazon. But since we don’t own a controlling stake in their parent company Sony, all we can do is sit and wait for the fire to start spreading. Pull up a beach chair.