Why Did Blue Lock’s Hype Diminish After Its First Season?
When Blue Lock debuted in late 2022, it arrived at the perfect cultural moment — airing almost exactly at the time of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, one of the most globally hyped football events in recent memory. The anime’s premise — a high-stake, ego-driven reimagining of Japanese soccer — resonated strongly with the global football fever of the time. Social media platforms like Twitter, TikTok, and Reddit amplified its reach, with fans drawing parallels between Blue Lock’s fictional artstyle and real-life players such as Mbappé, Messi and Ronaldo.
However, following the conclusion of both the World Cup and Blue Lock’s first season, the show’s explosive popularity noticeably declined. This raises the question: Was the anime’s success primarily driven by its own narrative strengths, or did it ride the temporary wave of global football enthusiasm?
Several factors might explain the fading hype:
- Contextual Timing: Much of Blue Lock’s momentum was likely tied to the 2022 World Cup buzz. Once the real-world football mania ended, casual viewers lost the shared context that made the series feel culturally “urgent.”
- Content Saturation: After its initial 24 episodes, viewers familiar with the manga already anticipated future arcs, and the anime’s break between seasons allowed interest to cool.
- Comparative Hype Cycle: As newer sports and action anime like Haikyuu!! FINAL, Solo Leveling and many more hyped up anime emerged in 2024–2025, audience attention naturally shifted.
- Narrative Plateau: While Blue Lock’s first season offered high tension and spectacles, its hypercompetitive premise feels almost repetitive without deeper character evolution or emotional grounding in later arcs (also the fact that kaiju’s and monsters start appearing in a football match).
Therefore, the anime’s hype decline seems less a failure of the series itself and more a reflection of timing and media ecology — an example of how cultural trends, real-world events, and marketing strategies can temporarily amplify a series’ performance. The World Cup undoubtedly magnified Blue Lock’s impact, but sustaining that momentum afterward required narrative innovation and consistent engagement that only a second season or movie continuation could revive.
💭 What do you think? Can Blue Lock regain its former hype or just be left in the dust as just another generic seasonal anime?
Image credit 8bit
