Walt Disney released its earnings results on Wednesday, falling short of investor expectations. However, a bright spot for its namesake streaming service was its share of the Japan market, where it muscled into third place, knocking out Nippon TV’s Hulu.

Amazon Prime Video boasts around 16.5 million subscribers in Japan, followed by Netflix with 7 million. But Disney+, with 3.6 million subscribers, is creeping up the ranks, according to figures released this week in Media Partners Asia’s quarterly Japan Online Video Consumer Insights & Analytics report.

As the kings of premium streaming content continue to be locked in a television-worthy battle for the top spot, they have all adopted a similar strategy — turning to anime and South Korean dramas to woo the Japan market and net global viewers.

Kohei Obara, Netflix’s head of anime, told Hollywood Reporter in April that “well over half of our subscribers globally have watched anime in the past year. ... In Japan, at least 90% of our subscribers have been watching anime.”

The same month, Netflix announced a multifilm deal with Japanese anime giant Studio Colorido, along with plans to add 40 new anime titles to its catalog this year in response to viewer interests.

Kelly Day, vice president of Amazon’s Prime Video International, told Deadline in September the company has made a significant investment in original content in Japan, with anime a key driver in the market.

After releasing a list of newly commissioned and licensed Korean and Japanese content last year, Disney+ has announced a partnership with Nippon TV, as it seeks to better serve the Japan market.

Anime, according to the Media Partners’ report, “is a defining attribute of premium video streaming in Japan, accounting for 44% of premium video consumption in Q3 2022.”

Even without anime, Netflix has struck gold across genres, with flagship titles such as “Squid Game,” “Stranger Things” and “Bridgerton” netting critical acclaim and launching careers.

Disney+ has the nostalgia factor, owning iconic franchises such as “The Simpsons,” “Star Wars” and the whole suite of Disney movies, which it guards with legendarily aggressive legal muscle. And Amazon Prime Video, backed by a behemoth logistics conglomerate, has a seemingly unshakable grip on the market.

However, the trio are far from the only ones in the game. In Japan there’s Tsutaya TV, J:COM On Demand and NTT Docomo’s dTV, to name just a few. American streaming services such as HBO Max and Paramount+ have also sought to make inroads internationally, chasing an increasingly fragmented market.

The trend has even become something of a pop culture plot point. On Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show” — a drama centered on a news network struggling to enter the crowded streaming market — the irony of the theme appearing in a piece of television hosted by a new entrant to the market will likely not have been lost on viewers.