Breaking Down the Top-Selling Manga of 2022 in the United States
It's hard to disagree with the idea that manga is continuing to grow in North America. As anime adaptations help to boost many series that are selling the world over, a new sales chart shows just how popular manga has become in the West. While not making the number one spot for graphic novels in sales in the U.S., it's clear that manga has managed to secure quite a few spots as the top-selling titles in North America.
While manga was able to secure quite a few spots in the top ten, the biggest winners in the graphic novel war were publications such as Cat Kid Comic Club, Dog Man, and Five Nights At Freddy's, which took the top five spots. Manga has continued to grow in sales not just thanks to the anime that has been able to be easily streamed thanks to platforms such as Crunchyroll, HIDIVE, Hulu, HBO Max, Netflix, and more, but also with outlets such as Viz Media allowing readers to check out numerous manga online. Thanks to the continued popularity of the medium, it will be interesting to see if a particular manga series will be able to overcome the North American competition to take the top spot for 2023 graphic novel sales.
Manga: Which Series Hit The Top Ten?
In a new list shared by NPD BookScan, Chainsaw Man was revealed to take the top spot for highest-selling manga in the United States, as the first volume of Tatsuki Fujimoto's bloody shonen pulled in over 270,000 sales in the West, making it the sixth highest selling graphic novel. Following Chainsaw Man, Tatsuya Endo's Spy x Family came in at number seven and came within striking distance of Denji's story by only selling five thousand copies less. Following the Forger Family, Demon Slayer's first volume from Koyoharu Gotoge arrived at number eight, capping off the strong showing for manga sales.
The big winner when it comes to publishers of manga in North America was Viz Media, obviously, with the company responsible for the printing of Chainsaw Man, Spy x Family, Demon Slayer, and countless other hit shonen series. 2023 will see the release of new anime adaptations, so it should be interesting to see what manga, if any, are able to topple this new top three from their spots. Regardless, it remains a great time to be a manga fan in North America.