Roblox Reaches 151M DAU & Hello Kitty Gets 2028 Movie: Weekly Oshikatsu News (Oct 31, 2025)

Here is our roundup of notable corporate oshikatsu (fannish support activities) marketing and fan business news from the week of October 24 to October 30, 2025.

This Week’s Highlights

This was a week in which fan enthusiasm showed up directly in corporate earnings reports and market forecast numbers.

According to the Q3 2025 financial results released by Roblox, daily active users (DAU) grew 70% year-over-year to reach 151.5 million. Revenue rose 48% year-over-year to $1.4 billion, and total hours engaged climbed 91% year-over-year to 39.6 billion hours. Meanwhile, a research report on the anime market projected that the global market size would grow from approximately $42.8 billion in 2024 to approximately $80.5 billion by 2035.

On the advertising industry side as well, there were moves to treat this fan passion as a business management metric. Advertising agency Daiko explained a practical marketing methodology for creating “oshi customers” (oshi kokyaku—devoted customers who champion a brand like a favorite idol or character) centered on “emotionally moving customer experience (CX).” The Gokurakuyu bathhouse group announced that it would simultaneously hold two separate anime collaborations—with My Hero Academia and Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray—across distinct store networks in November. Companies were increasingly discussing fan excitement not only through scenes on the ground, but also through the numbers in financial statements and market projections.

DIAGRAMKey Platform and Market Figures Reported This Week

151.5M: Roblox Q3 2025 daily active users (up 70% year-over-year)
39.6B hrs: Roblox Q3 2025 total hours engaged (up 91% year-over-year)
$42.8B: Global anime market size in 2024 per SDKI Analytics
$80.5B: Projected global anime market size by 2035 (approx. 6.1% CAGR)

Source: The Oshi Lab’s summary of the article

The Scale of Fan Platforms Shown in Roblox’s Earnings

Roblox — Q3 2025 Sets a New Record with 151.5 Million DAU

Roblox announced its financial results for the third quarter of 2025 (July 1 to September 30). Daily active users (DAU) increased 70% year-over-year to reach 151.5 million, surpassing the previous record high of 111.8 million set in Q2 2025. Revenue rose 48% year-over-year to $1.4 billion, and total hours engaged rose 91% year-over-year to 39.6 billion hours. By region, DAU in APAC (Asia-Pacific) grew 108% year-over-year, recording the highest growth rate. By age group, DAU aged 13 and older increased 89% year-over-year, topping 100 million users. On the other hand, consolidated net loss stood at $257.4 million; creator payouts increased 85% year-over-year and infrastructure costs—such as server expansion and AI adoption—rose 61% year-over-year (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

Around the same time, games industry research firm Newzoo also analyzed Roblox in a separate report. Newzoo reported DAU at approximately 112 million and Q2 2025 creator payouts at $316 million. According to Newzoo, users aged 13 and older surged by 54% year-over-year in Q2 2025, noting that this demographic has higher purchasing power and tends to seek more sophisticated content (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: Both reports focus closely on the “13 and older” age bracket. Although Roblox still carries a strong impression of being a platform for children, the segment actually driving growth consists of users who can spend money at their own discretion. When measuring the value of a fan platform, it is necessary to look separately at age composition and purchasing power alongside total user headcount. This is a useful trend to keep in mind when examining the broader oshikatsu market size.

Streaming Platforms and Talent Agencies Dominated the Conversation with Major Collaborations

Twitch x hololive production — “Holoday,” a 24-Hour Takeover by 17 Talents

Live streaming service Twitch announced “Holoday,” its first collaboration event with the VTuber agency hololive production. The event date was announced for Thursday, November 20 (Pacific Standard Time). On that day, Twitch announced it would give its front page a special makeover and stream continuously for 24 hours. Taking part were 17 talents across hololive Indonesia, hololive English, and HOLOSTARS English. Users who watched the streams during the event period received a global emote as a bonus reward, modeled after Motoaki Tanigo (known to fans as “YAGOO”), President and CEO of operating company COVER Corporation (Mogura VR (in Japanese), corriente.jp (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: Twitch is transforming its entire front page into a dedicated streaming showcase for 24 hours straight. Rather than stopping at simply advertising a collaboration, the event is designed to “dye the platform itself in hololive colors for the day.” For the viewing bonus, they prepared an emote modeled after the CEO of operating company COVER himself—a clever touch that makes it easier for fans to link the experience of participating in the stream with the brand in their memories. When a platform borrows the popularity of talents, designing the platform-wide presentation together with the bonus perks appears to be crucial.

McDonald’s Japan — A Parody Song Campaign Co-Starring Voice Actors and VTubers

McDonald’s Japan released a promotional video titled “Chiki-Chikin tte Ii na feat. Masako Nozawa & Kohei Uchimura & Vega & FUWAMOCO” for its limited-time menu item “Chiki-Chikin THE Garlic Pepper” (released on October 29). The video features a parody version of “Ningen tte Ii na” (“It’s Nice to Be Human”), the classic ending theme song from the anime Manga Nippon Mukashi Banashi (Folktales from Japan). In the video, legendary voice actress Masako Nozawa, former artistic gymnast Kohei Uchimura, M. Bison (known as Vega in Japan) from the Street Fighter series, and hololive English VTuber duo FUWAMOCO appeared together. On social media, the video sparked humorous reactions like “the official account has lost its mind” (a common fan compliment for absurdly entertaining corporate crossovers) and became a hot topic (Inside (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: The strategic goals behind the collaborations on the platform side (Twitch) and the fast-food side (McDonald’s) form a sharp contrast. Twitch borrows the popularity of existing talents to grow viewing hours on its own platform, whereas McDonald’s borrows short-term buzz to publicize a product launch. Even under the same umbrella of “casting talents,” this week illustrated how the campaign design changes depending on whether the goal is to continuously grow a fanbase or to generate a one-off burst of exposure.

The Marketing Industry and Research Firms Turned Fandom into Numbers

Daiko — Explaining a New Methodology That Creates “Oshi Customers”

Advertising agency Daiko explained the practical implementation of its new marketing methodology, “Direct-Driven Marketing,” at “AdverTimes Forum 2025,” held on September 25 and 26. Kohei Fujii and Hitomi Okajima of Daiko’s Direct-Driven Marketing Unit took the stage. Focusing on “Emotionally Moving CX x Full Funnel,” the two explained a method for setting planning goals derived from both “quantitative understanding” and “qualitative understanding” of customers. Okajima stated that “by deliberately building emotionally moving experiences into the customer journey, emotions surge all at once and give birth to ‘oshi customers’ who fall in love with the brand.” She explained that such customers stand apart from ordinary fans (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: Daiko’s approach designs “emotional resonance” not as something left to chance, but as something intentionally planted along the customer journey. The process of determining planning goals from both quantitative and qualitative understanding is an attempt to turn fan initiatives—which often rely on intuition—into a repeatable procedure. The term “oshi customer” also redefines customers as people to be nurtured separately from mere buyers, offering a helpful way of thinking for companies looking to distinguish segments within their fanbase more precisely.

SDKI Analytics — Anime Market Projected to Reach $80.5 Billion by 2035

Research firm SDKI Analytics published its “Anime Market Research Report: Forecast 2025–2035.” According to the report, the global anime market reached approximately $42.8 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 6.1%, reaching roughly $80.5 billion by 2035. The report identified IP monetization through merchandising, experiential retail, and direct-to-consumer (DtoC) commerce as the primary drivers of growth, analyzing that major IP holders such as KADOKAWA, Toho, and Bandai Namco generate substantial revenue from packaged products. At the same time, the report raised copyright infringement and unauthorized streaming as areas of concern that undermine industry revenue and investment in creators (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: It is telling that the drivers of growth cited here are secondary IP expansions—merchandising, experiential retail, and DtoC commerce—rather than viewing revenue from the anime works themselves. The report also pointed out that major IP holders earn substantial revenue from packaged goods. This observation reinforces that the weight of merchandise and experiential businesses originating from content will grow even further going forward. Meanwhile, the report explicitly names copyright infringement and unauthorized streaming as concerns; alongside market expansion, investment in rights protection remains an unavoidable challenge.

T-ARTS Company (Takara Tomy Arts) — Gacha Becomes a Staple Japanese Souvenir

Jun Otsuki, General Manager of the Gacha Planning Department in the Gacha & Candy Business Division at Takara Tomy Arts (T-ARTS Company), spoke about the popularity of gacha capsule toys among inbound tourists visiting Japan. According to Otsuki, sparked by social media posts from everyday overseas users spreading online, “visiting a gacha shop” is becoming a staple activity on trips to Japan. At “GACHAMATSURI,” a specialty store in Terminal 1 of Kansai International Airport, foot traffic reportedly increased following posts on the Chinese social media platform RED (Xiaohongshu). The company has also set up multilingual sales areas at Narita International Airport and opened large-scale specialty stores in classic tourist hubs such as Asakusa, Shibuya, and Harajuku to increase opportunities for tourists to encounter capsule toys (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: Daiko’s “oshi customer” methodology and Takara Tomy Arts’ gacha strategy share overlapping aims. Both companies refuse to leave “the timing of emotional excitement” to chance, instead building it directly into the customer’s physical or digital path. Takara Tomy Arts deliberately took organic social media buzz as its starting point and worked backward from there to decide where to open stores. As outlined in our design principles of oshikatsu marketing, rather than waiting for fan excitement to arise naturally, spotting the triggers that help it spread and designing around them makes success much easier to reproduce.

Two Simultaneous Anime Collaborations Launched by a Bathhouse Chain in the Same Month

Gokurakuyu / RAKU SPA x My Hero Academia — Second Collaboration Held Across 27 Locations

A second collaboration between the TV anime My Hero Academia and bathhouse chain Gokurakuyu / RAKU SPA, titled “Beyond Gokuraku! PLUS ULSPA!”, was announced. Running from November 13 to December 9, 2025, the campaign takes place across a total of 27 locations—26 Gokurakuyu RAKU SPA Group stores and 1 partner location. It was announced that guests who pay an additional fee upon admission receive one of 12 collaboration-exclusive muffler towels at random. In addition, the chain announced 7 collaboration food items, 12 collaboration drinks, and 6 varieties of “Hero Baths” inspired by the characters’ “Quirks” (superpowers), along with newly recorded in-store audio broadcasts by Izuku Midoriya (voiced by Daiki Yamashita). The original manga series had surpassed 100 million copies in circulation worldwide (Cho! Animedia (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: In this collaboration, the muffler towels available for an extra fee are distributed at random from 12 designs. This creates a motive for fans to visit multiple times and pay the add-on fee repeatedly in pursuit of the specific design they want—applying the exact same mechanism as gacha capsule toys directly to bathhouse customer attraction. The collaboration elements extend beyond visuals to taste and hearing through food, drinks, bath additives, and in-house broadcasts, a setup designed to boost both length of stay and average spend per fan at the same time.

Gokurakuyu x Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray — Running Across 11 Locations Through December

Gokurakuyu announced that it would co-host a collaboration campaign with the anime Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray together with GK Marketing. Running from November 13 to December 9 across 11 Gokurakuyu Group stores, the campaign features a “Plus Set” where paying an extra fee on top of admission nets guests a collaboration-exclusive muffler towel, alongside sales of full-body acrylic stands and T-shirts. The collaboration menu includes character-inspired dishes such as the “Overwhelming Oguri-Portion Croquette Set Meal.” For every 2,000 yen spent on collaboration merchandise at the venue, guests receive an original clear card at random, and 6 varieties of themed collaboration baths are scheduled to rotate across staggered periods (Inside (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: The Gokurakuyu Group is starting two separate anime collaborations on the exact same date—November 13—and hosting them across separate store networks. When a single facility brand teams up with multiple IPs simultaneously, it can attract distinct fanbases who have different reasons for visiting all at once. For venues like bathhouses—places people may not visit every day, but will visit for a special occasion—running multiple collaborations in parallel makes it easier to grow overall foot traffic.

Retail and Food Brands Created Fan Touchpoints Through Lucky Bags and Bread

Doutor x Sanrio’s “Pochacco” — Limited-Quantity 2026 Lucky Bags

Doutor Coffee began accepting reservations sequentially starting October 24 for its “Lucky Bag 2026” (fukubukuro) in collaboration with Sanrio’s popular character Pochacco, ahead of a scheduled release date of December 26, 2025. The lineup consists of 9 sets priced from 2,300 yen to 11,000 yen, pairing coffee bean sets roasted at Doutor’s own factories or drip cafe sets with Pochacco merchandise such as an original plushie measuring approximately 25 cm and mascot charms. Two additional lucky bag types exclusive to the official online shop were also prepared, limited to a combined total of 300 sets (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: Doutor opened reservations more than two months before the release date and capped the official online-exclusive allocation at 300 sets—a mechanism designed to keep customers from putting off their purchase. By pairing everyday consumables like coffee beans with plushies and charms, the campaign creates an opportunity for people who do not normally buy character goods to pick them up. Offering nine price points ranging from 2,300 yen to 11,000 yen so fans can choose according to the depth of their devotion and budget is also a practical reference point.

Nogami x Ultraman — Second Collaboration Shokupan Loaf

High-end shokupan (Japanese milk bread) specialty bakery Nogami announced the release of its second Ultraman collaboration loaf, the “Ultra Rich Caramel Bread,” available for a limited time from November 1 to November 30, 2025. Building on the popularity of the first collaboration released in April 2025, the bakery increased the amount of caramel chocolate inside by 1.5 times. Bonus original charms come in 5 random designs—including Ultraseven, Ultraman Zero, and Ultraman Omega. A half-size loaf is priced at 1,500 yen, while a complete set guaranteeing all 5 charm designs is priced at 8,200 yen (Inside (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: Nogami increased the caramel chocolate that proved popular in its first April 2025 collaboration by 1.5 times. Rather than building a brand-new concept from scratch, this is a solid, reliable design that strengthens an already proven element to sell it again. By making the 5 charms random while offering a complete set for 8,200 yen, the bakery can aim for a much higher average customer spend than a single 1,500-yen loaf purchase. The phrase “Second Collaboration” itself also serves as a cue to remind fans who bought the first edition of their previous experience.

ABC-MART x Disney Twisted-Wonderland — First New Loafer Models in Four Years

Footwear retailer ABC-MART released a loafer collection themed around Disney Twisted-Wonderland The Animation, sold in limited quantities at select stores and on its official online store starting October 24. This marks the first new release in four years for the popular series, which sold out immediately during its previous run. The lineup features two models—a Heartslabyul Dorm Leader “Riddle Rosehearts” model and a Dorm Student model—each priced at 7,700 yen. To commemorate the launch, select stores announced pop-up spaces featuring shoe displays and life-size character standees designed to be enjoyed as oshikatsu photo booths (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: All three companies restricted the sales period and quantities while clearly signaling scarcity through phrases like “Lucky Bag,” “Second Collaboration,” and “first in four years.” By attaching character appeal to everyday products and setting clear time limits on sales, they nudge customers to decide to buy early. Together, these three cases show that even for everyday goods priced in the several-thousand-yen range, designing deadlines and scarcity can effectively drive purchases of collaboration products.

DIAGRAMTime Horizons and Strategic Goals in This Week's IP Initiatives

Short-Term Buzz & Sales

McDonald's Japan parody song video for a limited-time menu launch
Doutor, Nogami, and ABC-MART limited-run retail goods with clear deadlines
Gokurakuyu bathhouse campaigns and Logicool G / Tobu Zoo seasonal tie-ups

Ongoing Platform & Funnel Growth

Twitch x hololive 24-hour front-page takeover to grow platform viewing hours
Daiko's Direct-Driven Marketing method for nurturing devoted 'oshi customers'
SIXFONIA's free 3D YouTube live stream building momentum for paid in-person shows

Multi-Year Market Expansion

Sanrio and Warner Bros. Pictures developing Hello Kitty's 2028 Hollywood film
SDKI Analytics forecasting global anime market growth to $80.5B by 2035
Takara Tomy Arts expanding airport and tourist-hub gacha specialty stores

Source: The Oshi Lab’s summary of the article

Sanrio and Gaming Companies Expanded IP Through Film and Hardware

Sanrio x Warner Bros. — Hello Kitty’s First Hollywood Movie Set for Theatrical Release

Warner Bros. Pictures revealed that it will release the first-ever Hollywood theatrical film featuring Sanrio’s flagship character Hello Kitty, scheduled for a global release on July 21, 2028. Produced by New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, the project was in development at the time of the announcement. Sanrio President and CEO Tomokuni Tsuji commented that he was delighted to see Hello Kitty and other Sanrio characters finally make their debut on the big movie theater screen through a creative partnership with Warner Bros. Pictures and its team (Inside (in Japanese), Cinema Today (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: A film adaptation that takes nearly three years to reach theaters represents an investment on a completely different time horizon from quarterly sales promotions. Sanrio is working to expand the character recognition it has built up through merchandise and collaborations into a new frontier—a Hollywood movie—by teaming up with major studio Warner Bros. In his comment, Sanrio’s president used the phrase “creative partnership,” reflecting a strategy of entrusting in-house IP to outside specialists to open up new markets.

Logicool G x Genshin Impact — Character-Edition Gaming Gear

Logicool’s gaming device brand “Logicool G” (known internationally as Logitech G) released collaboration products with Genshin Impact on October 16: the “G515 LIGHTSPEED TKL Kamisato Ayaka Special Edition” keyboard (bundled with an exclusive desk mat) and the “G733 LIGHTSPEED Kamisato Ayaka Special Edition” headset. Both are priced at 21,890 yen (tax included). The headset weighs a light 266g and supports low-latency wireless connectivity via a USB dongle, with the exterior adorned with character silhouettes and motifs (Inside (in Japanese), Game*Spark (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: Logicool G is collaborating on the exact peripherals that Genshin Impact players actually use while gaming, aiming to turn players into fans of its own hardware. A price tag of 21,890 yen (tax included) is by no means cheap. Even so, by combining practical performance—such as a lightweight 266g build and low-latency wireless—with character design, the products satisfy both functional expectations and the desire to collect. It is a clear example of creating character touchpoints even in hardware markets outside the work itself.

DMM Factory x Tobu Zoo x Colorful Peach — Winter Collaboration Event

Merchandise production service DMM Factory held a limited-time collaboration with Colorful Peach, a gaming creator group affiliated with talent agency UUUM. Hosted at Tobu Zoo starting November 1, the collaboration ran as part of the park’s “Winter Illumination 2025–2026” through February 23, 2026, focusing on illumination tie-ins during the first half and zoo tie-ins during the second half. Colorful Peach had surpassed 2.3 million YouTube subscribers, and DMM Mail Order announced that pre-orders for original merchandise would open at 12:00 PM on November 1 (UUUM (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: Hello Kitty’s movie adaptation is a long-term investment nearly three years out from release, whereas the Logicool G and Tobu Zoo collaborations are initiatives aimed at recouping returns within a matter of weeks. Even within the same broad move of “using IP to meet new customer segments,” the scale and risk a company can take on differ dramatically depending on the length of the time horizon. Companies need to separate whether their IP strategy is aiming for the long term or the short term.

Concert and Event Attendance Figures Backed Up the Passion of Fans

SIXFONIA — Over 40,000 Concurrent Viewers for First 3D Online Concert

On October 26, the 2.5D talent group SIXFONIA held its first-ever 3D online concert, “SIXFONIA One Man Live [Six-tuation] vol.II -Virtual-,” streamed entirely for free on the group’s official YouTube channel. Concurrent viewership topped 40,000, and the hashtag “#シクフォニ3D” (#SIXFONIA3D) ranked high on social media trends. Having debuted in August 2022, the group reached 1 million YouTube subscribers on April 30, 2025—roughly two years and eight months after debut—and also announced in-person concerts scheduled in Osaka and Tokyo for November and December (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: SIXFONIA made its first 3D concert available for free, generating visible results in the form of over 40,000 concurrent viewers and a trending hashtag with “#シクフォニ3D.” Alongside their rapid growth to 1 million subscribers in roughly two years and eight months since debut, this free event also serves as an advertisement demonstrating their drawing power for the paid concerts in November and December. It is a helpful model for leveraging the scale of an audience gathered through a free stream to drive attendance for subsequent paid events.

Ikebukuro Halloween Cosplay Fest — 161,000 Attendees Last Year, Plus a Movie Tie-In

At the “Ikebukuro Halloween Cosplay Fest” (nicknamed Ikeharo), which began in 2014, a special stage event for the movie Zootopia 2 (scheduled for release in Japan on December 5) took place on October 25. One of Japan’s largest Halloween events, the festival drew 161,000 attendees the previous year. Japanese dub voice actors Hiro Shimono and Dream Ami took the stage, while fans dressed in costumes of animals from the film gathered at the venue and marched in a parade (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

The Oshi Lab Note: Both SIXFONIA and the Ikebukuro Halloween Cosplay Fest share the structure of “bringing massive enthusiasm into streams and events.” SIXFONIA made its stream free to gather 40,000 concurrent viewers and is channeling that number into ticket sales for its upcoming paid concerts. Similarly, Ikebukuro Halloween brought an upcoming movie into a festival whose main venue required a ticket, turning crowd size into promotional power. How an organizer measures the audience gathered through streams or events determines how those attendance numbers can be put to work.

Editorial Reflections on the Week

This week was a week in which fan enthusiasm was expressed in numbers that carry weight outside the entertainment industry as well.

Figures like “151.5 million DAU” and “39.6 billion hours engaged” lined up in Roblox’s earnings presentation are no longer metrics confined to the gaming industry; they are the kind of figures that appear in corporate investor relations materials and macro market forecasts. SDKI Analytics’ anime market projections and Daiko’s “oshi customer” methodology belong to the exact same current. A movement is underway to explain fan excitement not only in intuitive words, but through financial and analytical numbers.

At the same time, as seen in the Gokurakuyu Group launching two anime collaborations across separate store networks in November, initiatives on the ground are still built through detailed, step-by-step execution. Initiatives with vastly different time horizons and scales—from a loaf of bread in the 1,000-yen range to a movie opening in 2028—sat side by side in the very same week. Moving forward, oshikatsu marketing will likely require a dual perspective that looks at both the macro market size shown in data and the fine-grained design of individual store campaigns.

Mapping out which time horizon your own fan initiatives are targeting becomes much easier when viewing this week’s developments alongside our design principles of oshikatsu marketing.

Weekly Oshikatsu News brings you a weekly roundup of the intersection between fandom and business. You can browse past issues in the Oshikatsu x News category.