Out of the seven animated series on the chart, Attack on Titan is the next closest at #50, followed by Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (#55), JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run (#70), and One Piece (#84). After spending five years away from television following episode #170 in 2021, Asta and the Black Bulls have returned with a vengeance, and the numbers speak for themselves.
But this isn't just a case of fans showing up for a long-awaited sequel. Studio Pierrot has given Black Clover a serious upgrade. Under returning Sword of the Wizard King director Ayataka Tanemura, the studio has finally moved away from its exhausting year-round weekly schedule and switched to seasonal production.
The result is a Spade Kingdom Raid arc that looks closer to a theatrical release than the weekly anime fans remember. Season 2, episode #1 became Crunchyroll's most-liked anime premiere of 2026, while episode #5 scored a near-perfect 9.9/10 on IMDb. And remarkably, all of this has happened just one month into the fall broadcast. With the season's biggest and most brutal fights still waiting to air, Black Clover might not have reached its peak just yet.
A Historic #6 Global IMDb Ranking Proves Black Clover Is Having An Absolute Moment
What makes IMDb's #6 ranking particularly interesting is that the Most Popular TV Shows chart isn't some static list decided by critics. It updates weekly based on actual page views, search traffic, and rating activity from the platform's 250 million monthly visitors worldwide.
In other words, Black Clover isn't just getting people to watch its new episodes every Saturday. Viewers are actively looking it up, rating it, and talking about it. That lines up with Crunchyroll's own numbers, which recently crowned season 2 the most-watched anime of Fall 2026 after its first five episodes all scored above 9.3/10 on IMDb.
Anime has topped IMDb charts before. One Piece even claimed the #1 spot on the site's Top-Rated TV Shows of the Year list in mid-2024, beating live-action hits like Shōgun and The Bear. But Black Clover's comeback is a different story. One Piece had nearly 30 years of history, more than 1,100 episodes, and Netflix's live-action adaptation brought in new viewers. Black Clover, meanwhile, had just 170 episodes before its hiatus, a rough 2017 debut that attracted plenty of vocal critics, and more than five years away from weekly television.
The turning point came on October 31 with episode #5, "The Highest vs. the Lowest." The episode adapted Magna Swing's fight against Dante Zogratis, using his Soul Chain Deathmatch spell to strip both fighters of their magic and force a brutal fistfight. Studio Pierrot nailed the underdog showdown, earning the episode a 9.9/10 from more than 11,000 IMDb votes. It's now the highest-rated anime episode of 2026, and Magna's long-awaited moment in the spotlight has become one of the season's biggest talking points.
Black Clover Is Breaking Records Before Asta Even Gets Into A Serious Fight
The craziest part about Black Clover sitting at #6 is that season 2 hasn't even reached the biggest moments of the Spade Kingdom Raid yet. Noelle and Nozel still have their showdown against Supreme Devil Megicula, Yuno is yet to unlock his second Spade Kingdom grimoire and Star Magic against Zenon Zogratis, and Asta still has to push his Devil Union to the limit against Lucifero, the King of Devils.
These are the fights fans have been waiting years to see animated, and Studio Pierrot still has plenty of chances to raise the bar. With this momentum, a climb into IMDb's Top 3 doesn't sound far-fetched.
More importantly, Black Clover is following a path anime fans have seen before. Back in late 2023, Attack on Titan reached #1 on IMDb's Most Popular Shows chart during its finale, competing with Loki Season 2, Gen V, and The Fall of the House of Usher. Now, after five years away, Asta and the Black Bulls are having their moment. Anime is no longer fighting for a place at the television table. It's already sitting alongside Hollywood's biggest shows.
Release Date
2017 - 2026-00-00
Network
TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, TV Aichi, TVh, TVQ, TSC
Directors
Matsuo Asami, Rokou Ogiwara, Tazumi Mukaiyama, Akira Shimizu, Fumio Maezono, Daisuke Chiba, Toshihiro Maeya, Yoshimitsu Tsuda, Toshiaki Kanbara, Takahiro Enokida, Yasumi Mikamoto, Kenichi Maejima, Chihiro Kumano, Naoki Horiuchi, Yoshino Miwa
Writers
Kanichi Kato, Mio Inoue, Masanao Akahoshi, Momoko Murakami, Kunihiko Okada
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Gakuto Kajiwara
Asta (voice)
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Nobunaga Shimazaki
Yuno (voice)
English (US) ·