These days, it seems like manga cannot be stopped. In the past month or so, a slew of reports have gone live detailing just how big the industry has become globally. Now, NPD has put out a new infographic breaking down print unit sales of manga over the past several years, and it seems the industry has straight-up quadrupled since 2019.
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Yes, you read that right. Manga sales have quadrupled since 2019 and the pre-pandemic age. Currently, these sales are 27x faster than the total print book market, and manga currently contributes to 90% of annual gains where adult comics and graphic novels are concerned.
To break down the info a bit further, Circana Bookscan totaled data for print sales of manga in the United States from 2018 to 2022. Back in 2018, the industry pushed out 5.5 million copies of manga, and that rose to 6.7 in 2019. In 2020, figures continued to rise as 9.6 million copies were sold, but 2021 marked a watershed moment. In that year alone, manga sales rocketed to 25.2 million copies, and 2022 carried on that growth with 28.4 million copies sold.
As for where that growth took place, well – manga truly grew nationwide. In 2022, some areas of the United States experienced major growth, and many of them are Midwestern cities. Oklahoma City, OK and Kansas City, MO were two of the top growers. Other cities like Milwaukee, WI, and Columbus, OH also jumped up the list of top growth markets for manga sales.
As you can imagine, this kind of growth is wild to see, and this just covers print manga sales in the United States. These figures do not account for manga sales in Japan or elsewhere internationally. They do not even account for digital manga sales domestically, so there is no telling how massive manga would be if those totals were taken in.
As for the global manga market, we do know a bit about its scope. Market research valued the global manga market at $11.68 billion USD in 2022. Forecasts suggest the industry will continue to rake in more cash internationally through this year and many more as 2032 estimates suggest the global market could value over $50 billion.
What do you think about manga’s uprising over the past few years? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.
