Manga’s Top-Selling Titles of 2023: Mid-Year Report

It looks like some new numbers are in that manga readers won’t want to miss. After all, the end of May is here, and that means we are halfway through 2023 just about. As June comes into view, industries across the board are looking at what they’ve done this year so far, and a new report from Japan is now detailing which manga have sold the best in 2023 so far.

The update denotes two important categories as overall sales by series were counted along with individual volume sales. For the first category, a somewhat surprising pick took first place. Kodansha has pulled ahead in 2023 so far with Blue Lock. The manga is the highest-selling series overall this year with just over 8 million copies sold. This is nearly double the amount Chainsaw Man sold in second place with 4.49 million copies sold.

TOP BEST-SELLING MANGA Mid Year 2023 · Japan

BLUE LOCK being the #1 manga of the year, with an enormous gap to number 2. First time a spokon or Kodansha title in the lead

Slam Dunk with the impressive resurrection thanks to the movie!!

And Oshi no Ko managing to enter the top pic.twitter.com/wzTshQzVbh

— 寿 三井 (@Josu_ke) May 30, 2023

As for the rest of the list, Slam Dunk climbed to third place as the sports manga was lifted up by its new movie. The classic manga has sold nearly 4.2 million copies this year while Jujutsu Kaisen landed in fourth place with 3.75 million copies. One Piece fell just under at fifth place while Spy x Family, Tokyo Revengers, My Hero Academia, Oshi no Ko, and Kingdom rounded out the top ten overall series.

Now, it is time to look at individual volume sales. According to Oricon, One Piece came in first place because volume 105 has sold 1.75 million copies alone. Jujutsu Kaisen took second and third place before Spy x Family volume 11 nabbed the fourth spot. And to round out the top five, Tokyo Revengers volume 31 wrapped things up with 846,297 copies sold to date.

As you can see, shonen manga is dominating Oricon’s sale figures in Japan once again. The demographic is the biggest in manga, and as it turns out, sports series are having a renaissance in 2023. Blue Lock got a huge popularity boost thanks to the FIFA World Cup while Slam Dunk came back to life with a new film that has broken records across Asia. So if you have not picked up either of these sports titles, you may want to nab a copy ASAP!

What do you make of this mid-year list of manga sales? Are you surprised by the results here? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.