In mid-September 2024, during a special KADOKAWA broadcast, it was announced that the third season of the series will receive an OVA (Original Video Animation), just like the previous seasons. However, no other information about the OVA was released at that time.
However, considering that the OVAs of the first two seasons presented original stories and did not cover light novel content, it is expected that the OVA of the third season will also bring an original narrative, expanding the series’ universe in a unique way.
Will KonoSuba Have a Season 4?
Additionally, observing the release pattern of the previous OVAs, which were made available approximately 6 months after their respective announcements, it is reasonable to estimate that the OVA of the third season will be released in March or April 2025, about half a year after its announcement in September 2024.
There is still no official confirmation, but it is almost certain that the anime will have a continuation given the franchise’s enormous popularity and profitability, as well as the large availability of original material to be adapted, which are the main factors taken into account by the production committee to renew an anime.
- Streaming Performance
During the second quarter of 2024, when its third season was being released, KonoSuba regularly ranked among the top 3 most popular anime titles on NicoNico and Abema TV, two of the leading anime streaming platforms in Japan. Additionally, the series also remained among the top 10 most popular series on Netflix and Prime Video in the Japanese market.
Internationally, despite also having amassed a significant number of fans, KonoSuba failed to crack the top 10 of the most popular anime on Crunchyroll, the leading anime streaming platform outside of Japan.
- Disc Sales
The initial sales of the first volume of the anime’s third season were 3,382 copies, a quite impressive number considering the current state of the anime home video market.
In recent years, anime disc sales have been facing a gradual decline as streaming has consolidated as the primary means of consuming this type of content, so in this context, achieving over 3,000 copies sold on debut is a very positive performance for the franchise.
- Original Material Sales
The literary franchise of the work has surpassed the incredible mark of 10 million cumulative copies in circulation as of November 2021, which is a remarkable feat, as there are only a few light novel works that have managed to reach such a sales level.
And although the original KonoSuba light novel has reached its conclusion, the franchise continues to expand with the publication of spin-offs. Additionally, the manga adaptation of the work is still ongoing, suggesting that the total sales of the “KonoSuba” intellectual property should continue to grow in the future.
- Availability of Original Material to be Adapted
The KonoSuba anime is based on the light novel of the same name, created by the renowned Japanese writer Natsume Akatsuki, and although the light novel series has reached its conclusion over 4 years ago, the anime is far from having adapted the entire original story.
The 3 seasons of the anime, along with the film released in 2019, have only managed to adapt 7 of the 17 volumes that make up the complete light novel, which means that a significant portion of the original narrative has yet to be explored in the animated adaptation.
Conclusion:
Based on these data that prove the enormous availability of original material to be adapted and the continued success of KonoSuba, consistently being a profitable and popular franchise, it is almost certain that the anime producers will give the green light for the production of a new season of the KonoSuba anime.
KonoSuba Season 4 Release Date Prediction
The KonoSuba anime has a history of studio changes and a rather irregular release schedule.
The first two seasons of the anime were produced by Studio Deen and released in 2016 and 2017, respectively, while the film was developed by the JC Staff studio and premiered in 2019, and the first season of the Megumin anime spin-off and the third season of KonoSuba, produced by Studio Drive, were released in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Therefore, it is likely that fans will have to wait at least two years after the end of the season 3 before a sequel to the anime is released, which means that the fourth season of KonoSuba will probably be released only sometime from mid-2026 onwards, but keep in mind that this is just an estimate.
