One Piece is among the longest-running anime series of all time. Given its immense length, most new anime fans feel intimidated jumping into the One Piece anime from the very beginning. The One Piece episode count is well over 1100 episodes, with Eiichiro Oda's series slowly approaching its conclusion after nearly three decades.
For a dedicated anime fan new to One Piece to sit down and binge the legendary shonen series, it would take a significant amount of time to get through everything, including the copious amounts of filler material. With the Elbaph Arc currently airing new episodes, the time commitment will continue to rise. Fortunately, for those on a time budget, there are other ways to enjoy One Piece.
One Piece Currently Has 1170 Episodes
Based on the even longer-running manga by Eiichiro Oda, the One Piece anime first began airing in October 1999, making the show over 26 years old as of the December 2025 anime season. Throughout the years, it has amassed almost as many seasons and feature-length anime films as well. The franchise has since grown far larger, incorporating video games, OVAs and light novels, not to mention a thriving and dedicated fandom over the years.
That said, the extended narrative length has created a large One Piece episode count. As of December 2025 — the date of the last episode release before the ongoing anime break — there are 1153 One Piece episodes in total. Anyone looking to begin their One Piece watch time or pick it back up can find it on various streaming platforms, including Crunchyroll, Netflix and Hulu, though not all of these platforms feature every episode. Of course, if fans want to also watch all the One Piece movies, this adds another layer to their watch time.
One Piece Has Released 15 Movies
Unlike many anime movies, some of the One Piece movies are integrated into the ongoing saga, which fits the One Piece show's anthology-style storytelling. To date, there are 15 One Piece films, with the most recent, One Piece: Red, released in August 2022. Set during the preceding Wano arc, One Piece: Red also exists within its own timeframe, so it continues to expand the overall story.
Adding all 15 movies to the viewing list extends a viewer's One Piece watch time by quite a bit. Combining the films with the extensive episode list, committed viewers should be able to watch the entire series eventually, but it's going to take some serious dedication. Anyone wondering "How long does it take to watch One Piece?" will definitely add a large handful of hours to the viewing experience if they choose to incorporate the 15 movies into the main storyline.
How Long Does It Take to Watch One Piece?
The One Piece anime has just now released Episode 1170, with another soon on the way. That means it would take a first-time viewer a very long time to be up-to-date with any future episodes. The episodes range between 22 and 24 minutes long.
Using an average of 23 minutes, and multiplying it by 1170, binging the series would take around 26,910 minutes. This equals 448.5 hours or 18.68 days. Adding all fifteen films tacks on another 22.1 hours, extending the total One Piece watch time to 470.6 hours, or 19.6 days, bringing it close to three weeks of consecutive viewing with no breaks for other shows or activities, including sleep.
If viewers were to spend the eight hours a day usually reserved for work or school consuming the anime instead, it would take 56 days to watch every single One Piece episode. Adding the movies into the mix, the total number of days to catch up entirely would be 58.82. That's watching nothing but One Piece every day for eight hours, including weekends. That would be almost two months' worth of continued viewing — a pretty arduous task.
One Pace Is a Fan-Made Platform That Removes Anime-Only Material
Fan edits of anime have been around for a long time. A group of dedicated Naruto fans came up with Naruto Kai, which was named after the popular Dragon Ball Z Kai recut made by Toei Animation. Series like Naruto are notoriously packed with filler, but One Piece's filler content is barely 8% of the total episode count. At the same time, the One Piece anime has many problems with slow pacing, explaining the fan-created project known as One Pace.
Since the One Piece anime has been running in sync with the manga, the narrative has been slowed down with additions, flashbacks, and other extraneous scenes. The One Pace edit excises any anime-only padding material from countless episodes — a rather tough job given that they must take care of the background score and scene transitions.
That said, not every One Piece arc has been included in One Pace, but fans can easily watch the relevant episodes where necessary. The total time saved by watching One Pace is around 150–200 hours — nearly half the total watch time.
The Netflix Live-Action One Piece Offers an Easier Alternative
Netflix released its live-action take on One Piece in 2023, despite many fans having been skeptical of the project beforehand. The series released to rave reviews, and many viewers were astounded at how well the Netflix project translated the source material to live action. Most importantly, the live-action One Piece has proven that other anime franchises could work in the same medium.
This success has seen it lauded, and there are even Lego sets and other merchandise planned for this version of the story. Truncating many of the earliest arcs in the series, Netflix's live-action version heavily streamlines the One Piece watch time.
After all, Netflix's live-action One Piece is only 16 episodes, a far cry from the 1153 episodes of the anime. The first season came in at just around 451 minutes long, making it a little over 7 and a half hours' worth of content. Season 2, which aired in March 2026, was 30 minutes longer, at 481 minutes. The combined seasons' total run time clocks in at 15.5 hours, meaning a dedicated fan could binge the live-action series to date in a single weekend.
The Upcoming Reboot Offers a Superior Watching Experience
Another option is to hold out for the upcoming anime series The One Piece, which will also air on Netflix. An original net animation by prominent anime production company Wit Studio, this series is a remake of the original anime, starting over from the beginning and potentially streamlining the storyline.
Eiichiro Oda has gone on record saying that Wit Studio shouldn't mimic the manga but rather "digest it and remake it in their own style." This offers a lot of potential because the entire One Piece universe fans have known and loved for nearly three decades will receive a complete overhaul, with no filler material. It will also include longer-than-standard episodes, covering more material per episode than the current adaptation.