Netflix pays a lot for One Piece.

One of Netflix's most anticipated shows may have cost the streaming firm a lot.

The platform released the live-action adaptation of One Piece on Thursday (31 August).

The show, written by Matt Owens and Steven Maeda, is topping the platform's most-watched lists worldwide, which is good considering how much each episode cost the streaming service.

One Piece user @AliAhmelegend noted that Netflix Germany's official site stated that each episode of the series, which is bringing many of the manga's legendary animation scenes to life by actors, costs $17m (£13.4m).

This is $3m (£2.3m) more than HBO paid for each episode of Game of Thrones' final season, but it's below Stranger Things' episode budget. This information is no longer on the site.

This is a lot to spend for a new series, but Netflix trusts the material and its passionate fandom, which has made One Piece the best-selling manga series ever. It sold over 516.6 million copies in 61 countries and regions by August 2022.

The show was the top trend on X/Twitter on Friday morning, proving the gamble paid off. The 1997 manga was by Eiichiro Oda.

Netflix's live-action series features Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D Luffy, a guy looking for hidden riches with a pirate crew, including Roronoa Zoro (Mackenyu), Nami (Emily Rudd), Usopp (Jacob Romero), and Sanji (Taz Skylar).

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