Ninja Warrior is a sports entertainment and reality television franchise that began airing in 1997, and has since aired in 157 countries and been adapted in a total of 26 countries. The series began as a segment called Sasuke on the show Kinniku Banzuke. It began airing internationally in 2005 which led to massive expansion and widespread success. Adaptations began planning immediately, with American Ninja Challenge, Sasuke Malaysia and Sasuke Singapore being the first small-scale adaptations which sent their winners over to Japan. The first large scale adaptation was the fourth season of American Ninja Warrior in 2012, with twenty-two more adaptations launching between 2014 and 2019.
In Ninja Warrior, a group of competitors attempt to complete a four-stage obstacle course. Falling any obstacle, falling in the water, running out of time or losing a head-to-head race results in the competitor being eliminated. Many seasons operate an additional qualification system where as many as 1000 hopefuls take on a series of one to five qualification heats to earn a spot in the finals course.
History
1997–2006: Sasuke and Kunoichi
During the 1996 run of Kinniku Banzuke, a small event called Spider Walk appeared. The course featured a short, 9 obstacle time trial based on the Ninja skill of stealthily walking between walls in alleyways and hallways. Later in 1997, following the debut of the first multi-stage course Hand Walk Tower, assistant producer Masato Inui was tasked with creating a larger, multi-stage course that expanded upon Spider Walk to cover a full array of other ninja skills. Despite being intended as a one-time event, the heavy success of Sasuke led to its ongoing renewal with a new tournament every six months, as well as a full array of spinoffs, most notably with Kunoichi, an all-women's season.
After Kinniku Banzuke ended in 2002, and its sequel Taiiku World ended in 2003, Sasuke and Kunoichi were launched as standalone specials which have continued ever since.
2007–2019: international expansion In Summer 2007, G4 launched American Ninja Challenge, a reality show where contestants could audition and take part in a series of challenges to win a spot on Sasuke. After four successful seasons, interest in America grew high enough that G4 decided to ramp up production. 2009 saw the debut season of American Ninja Warrior, where hundreds of competitors competed in shorter preliminary stages to win one of ten spots in Sasuke 23rd tournament.
In November 2011, Ushio Higuchi's Monster9 filed for bankruptcy as a result of financial mismanagement, legal disputes and settlements with stage acrobat group Muscle Musical and plummeting viewership. As a result, Sasuke, Kunoichi and Sportsman No. 1 all went into hiatus during legal proceedings, and were subsequently cancelled by TBS. As a result of this cancellation, G4 made the decision that for the first time ever, they would host their own full scale tournament in Las Vegas, and as a result American Ninja Warrior fourth season saw 100 competitors complete a course in the US, with Japan cut out of the format. Due to the higher production costs, G4 decided to move the program to NBC to attract higher viewership. This new format was a massive success, however G4 would shut down at the end of 2014, two years after an end to Japanese Sasuke broadcasts in the United States.
Behind the scenes, the success of American Ninja Warrior led TBS to believe they could market the series to a much wider audience, and the idea of the ASEAN Open Cup was conceived. Sasuke would expand into ASEAN countries which would feature shorter courses and special events, which would then act as qualifiers for Sasuke. The project was piloted with the launch of Sasuke Singapore and Sasuke Malaysia in 2012, sporting half length 1st Stage courses followed by the Final Stage tower. The first ASEAN Open Cup was held in Malaysia featuring teams from ASEAN regions, Japan and the United States, giving competitors a chance to win a spot on Sasuke. Following this event, interest died off, and the ASEAN Open Cup was discontinued as a failure.
Despite the previous failure to expand into ASEAN countries, 2015 saw massive expansion through Europe and Asia, with localized versions being produced in China, Denmark, Indonesia, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Vietnam. This trend continued with France, Germany and Italy in 2016; Austria, Australia, Egypt, Hungary, Netherlands, Russia and Spain in 2017; and Israel, Romania and Switzerland in 2018. 2017 additionally saw a full reboot of Kunoichi, featuring redesigned courses more akin to Sasuke.
In the United States, NBC decided to expand the portfolio of the series by creating several spinoffs. The international crossover series American Ninja Warrior: USA vs. The World featured top competitors from each international version competing in a head to head competition. Team Ninja Warrior saw teams of three racing against other members for the fastest times. American Ninja Warrior Junior featured kids racing each other for the fastest times. These formats proved popular and saw their own international adaptations in China, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel and Vietnam.
In Japan, Ushio Higuchi had created a new company called GoldEggs following the dissolution of Monster9, and in 2017 attempted to launch his own unlicensed successor to Viking called KuroOvi: The Ultimate Hero. He would once again use Sasuke and Kinniku Banzuke content in an attempt to promote his series, as well as featuring many competitors from Sasuke, Viking, and Kunoichi. The series would also feature simultaneously released English dubs. The series was a financial failure, with the English broadcast being cancelled after only one month due to an average viewership of under 150 views per episode.
2019 saw new versions licensed in Mongolia and Poland, which to date are the most recently produced new adaptations of Ninja Warrior.
2019–2025: format variations, COVID-19 and IOC certification By 2019, more than 60% of the international adaptations that had been produced had already ended, with the high costs of production compared to viewership being a primary factor. The situation worsened significantly following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when production was suspended globally on large scale TV series. American Ninja Warrior 12th season featured modified rules and courses to distance competitors, while the remaining global seasons were postponed until late 2020 or into 2021. The change in market and year away from broadcasting significantly impacted viewership, with returning series seeing greatly reduced ratings across the board, leading to many series being cancelled after 2022. Additionally, productions in Israel and Russia ceased due to the 2022 Ukraine invasion and 2022 Gaza–Israel clashes. By mid 2023, only five countries had series in active production: Japan, the United States, France, Germany and Poland.
In order to regain interest in the series, many adaptations began introducing changes to the format. American Ninja Warrior introduced twists such as the Safety Pass, Speed Pass, Power Tower and side by side racing – all changes that would be seen extensively abroad in the 2020s. Sasuke would remain the only series that remained true to the roots of the series.
Following the failure of KuroOvi, GoldEggs sought to create a chain of ninja gyms across Japan titled Ninja Park, which would additionally host in-person competitions under the banner Ninjathlon. As part of this process, GoldEggs would file trademark ownership claims over several iconic Sasuke obstacles in both Japan and the United States. While unsuccessful in the US, Higuchi and GoldEggs were able to successfully claim six obstacles in Japan. As a result, beginning in Sasuke 40th tournament, several obstacles were renamed to avoid legal injunctions, most notably with the Spider Walk being renamed to Spider Run, and Cliffhanger Dimension being renamed to Cliff Dimension. The trademark registration for the Spider Walk was rejected on November 8, 2022.
Following the conclusion of the 2020 Summer Olympics in 2021, the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) voted to remove Equestrian from the Modern Pentathlon following concerns of Animal rights. Due to extremely low viewership, the UIPM aimed to bring in a new discipline that would make the event more appealing to viewers. Following several rounds of testing and votes, the UIPM voted to add obstacle racing to the modern pentathlon beginning with the 2028 Summer Olympics. The course would be standardized and obstacles would be licensed directly from Sasuke and TBS, finally fulfilling Ushio Higuchi's initial dream of creating a new sport after 35 years. Conversely, Sasuke 39th tournament debuted a new final stage featuring a Speed climbing zone, with a layout variant of the normal standard.
Due to Japan's success in winning 3 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze in Skateboarding during its debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics, TBS launched Kasso four months prior to the 2024 Summer Olympics to build up hype for the event. Kasso is an official spinoff that fuses Sasuke format with skateboarding in the style of Skeboarder from Kinniku Banzuke. While the show was a failure in Japan and was cancelled shortly after broadcast, the first tournament netted an unexpected 6 million views internationally within one year, prompting the immediate revival and international licensing of the series by TBS. The second tournament was confirmed and, like the previous one, it resonated around the world.
Following this announcement, TBS would invest heavily into the Sasuke brand. In 2024, TBS broadcast the first ever Sasuke World Cup shortly after the 2024 Summer Olympics, featuring a total of 35 top ninja competitors from Australia, France, Germany, Japan and the United States. In January 2025, TBS rebooted Kunoichi and Sasuke Junior. In March 2025, TBS debuted a new spinoff format called Hanzo that brought in elements of swimming, shooting, fencing and running to align the format more closely with the Modern Pentathlon. American Ninja Warrior and Ninja Warrior Poland would both alter the formats of their 2025 seasons to feature side-by-side racing brackets similar to the IOC standard instead of the original Survival Attack format, an element that was previously seen on Ninja Warrior UK sixth season.
2025–present: franchise reboots Beginning in 2024, renewed interest in the series began with discussions occurring to expand the franchise into new regions. During the Media City Qatar conference in May 2025, series lead Masato Inui confirmed they were planning to expand Ninja Warrior into a more globally connected franchise with networks helping each other and collaborating.
Since 2025, several international versions of Sasuke/Ninja Warrior announced their return after a long time hitatus, such as Vietnam, Israel and Australia. However, in the same year, Polsat announced that the Polish version of Ninja Warrior will be cancelled after 12 seasons. By mid 2026, only six countries had series in active production: Japan, the United States, Australia, Germany, Israel and Vietnam.
On October 7, 2025, TBS announced a licensing agreement with Banijay Entertainment under which it will hold the international rights to the Ninja Warrior format, outside territories where there already active versions of the franchise (including Asia, France, Germany, Poland, and the United States).
In March 2026, TBS debuted new crossover spinoff format called Musou that mixed the format of Sasuke, Kunoichi and other TBS physical gameshows such as Takeshi's Castle, Sports Danshi Grand Prix, DOORS and Tokyo Friend Park.
Format Course structure