Here Are the 2018 Top-Selling Manga for Viz Media, Kodansha, and More

As part of the recent Project Anime conference in Los Angeles, which is a production put on by the Society for
the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA), Nonlinear World’s Dallas Middaugh presented an analysis of the United States manga market, and the analysis included a thorough look at the top-selling manga for Viz Media, Kodansha, and more from 2018.

It’s worth noting the methodology used to gather this data, first and foremost. Middaugh’s analysis uses data from Diamond Comics and Bookscan, which notably excludes digital sales. Even so, the analysis should account for the vast majority of sales, and is therefore still useful. The analysis’ broad trends like, for example, anime adaptations being incredibly important to the sales of manga and that shonen is incredibly popular as a genre likely wouldn’t change with a larger set of data.

Ranked by revenue, the analysis puts the top five manga publishers in the United States as Viz Media, Yen Press, Kodansha Comics, Seven Seas, and Dark Horse, in that order. In terms of market by units, Viz dominates the rest of the pack with 50.67%, which makes sense given that the publisher put out 47 out of the top 50 manga by units in 2018.

According to the analysis, here are 2018’s top-selling manga series from Viz Media:

1. My Hero Academia
2. The Legend of Zelda
3. Tokyo Ghoul
4. RWBY
5. Dragon Ball Super

According to the analysis, here are 2018’s top-selling manga series from Yen Press:

1. Black Butler
2. Goblin Slayer
3. Fruits Basket
4. Wolf Children
5. Angels of Death

According to the analysis, here are 2018’s top-selling manga series from Kodansha:

1. Fairy Tail
2. Sailor Moon
3. Attack on Titan
4. Wotakoi
5. The Seven Deadly Sins

There are more publishers covered in the full manga market white paper presented at the conference, and you should really check out the whole thing if you’re at all interested in the business side of things.

What do you think? Is any of this information particularly shocking to you? Let us know in the comments!