Manga Sales Are Booming Stateside, Says New 2022 Report
Manga has seen a major uptick in sales over the years, with sales actually outpacing demand causing a recent shortage, but that fact hasn't halted the medium from pushing a large number of units and breaking some big records in the process. In a recent report following the sales of manga and graphic novels in North America, the sales for these printed stories didn't just outpace prior years, but also was able to make more money than some years combined!
In 2021, a total of over thirty million graphic novels and manga volumes were sold in North America, not even taking into account digital sales as this model only studied the physical copies sold to the West. With 2020 sales cracking eighteen million, this is a massive uptick and sees a startling growth of around sixty-eight percent and totaling close to $450 million USD in sales overall. What may also come as a surprise is that while manga was well represented in this breakdown, the story of Dog Man, the graphic novel series from creator Dav Pilkey, sold millions of copies, shooting it to the top of the list easily above some of its competitors. In terms of manga, the usual suspects were represented on the chart, with Attack on Titan's first volume at the top of the list at number thirteen, followed by the premiere volumes of My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, and Chainsaw Man to name a few.
When it comes to manga specifically in this rundown, sales have jumped two hundred and eighty percent for 2021, proving that the medium has found its place in North America and seems to only be growing larger with each passing year. As anime continues to grown via streaming services, with Netflix recently revealing that a startling half of its subscribers had watched anime at least once, it will be interesting to see if 2022 is able to capitalize and move the dial further when it comes to sales of manga and graphic novels in general.
What do you think of these starling figures when it comes to manga sales in North America? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the growing influence of manga.