Demon Slayer’s Sales Figures Are Overtaking One Piece’s Big Time

A truly great anime adaptation can drive more eyes to the original manga releases, and there’s been no better example of that impact this year than Koyoharu Gotoge’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. The first season of the anime wrapped earlier this year, and has since become one of the most talked about action anime releases of the year overall. While the manga was successful in its own right before, it’s a much different situation now that the anime has gone on to succeed on such a wild degree. Not only are fans reading to see what’s coming next, but also reading through from the very beginning.

This has meant that volume sales have been on a tear for the series in Japan, and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba managed to overtake One Piece in terms of overall sales for the year. A new update on the sales figures confirmed this is still very much the case.

While One Piece still holds the top spot in terms of new volume sales for manga, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is still keeping its top spot in overall sales thanks to not only fans buying the most recent volume released but are buying up several volumes of the series’ backlog as well. As noted by @GovetaXV on Twitter, the sales numbers cataloged up to November 1st have Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba clocking in at 11,676,349 volumes sold.

One Piece is following right after with 9,904,851 volumes sold, and Yasuhisa Hara’s Kingdom rounds out the top three with 7,561,186. Seeing that the sales year is nearly coming to an end, it’s most likely safe to assume Demon Slayer will remain in the top spot for 2019. There’s a question of whether or not this trend will continue into next year, but with a new movie on the horizon, it just might have that strong staying power.

Originally created by Koyoharu Gotoge, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba first debuted in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in February 2016.VIZ Media fully licensed the series for an English language release, and they officially describe Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba as such:

“Since ancient times, rumors have abounded of man-eating demons lurking in the woods. Because of this, the local townsfolk never venture outside at night. Legend has it that a demon slayer also roams the night, hunting down these bloodthirsty demons. For young Tanjiro, these rumors will soon to become his harsh reality. Ever since the death of his father, Tanjiro has taken it upon himself to support his family. Although their lives may be hardened by tragedy, they’ve found happiness. But that ephemeral warmth is shattered one day when Tanjiro finds his family slaughtered and the lone survivor, his sister Nezuko, turned into a demon. To his surprise, however, Nezuko still shows signs of human emotion and thought… Thus begins Tanjiro’s request to fight demons and turn his sister human again.”