Manga gross sales in North America are down 14% in 2023, in keeping with information shared through the ICv2 whitepaper presentation at New York Comedian Con (NYCC).
Nonetheless, regardless of the decline, manga stays the preferred phase within the comics market, surpassing conventional superhero comics.
Based on the most recent statistics manga has a 43% share within the graphic novel and comics content material class in 2023, in comparison with 45% in 2022.
Its closest competitor, superhero comics, has a 15% share, whereas kids’s comics account for the biggest share at 29%. By comparability, author-based graphic novels make up 13% of the market share.
This breakdown is analogous with evaluation by ComicsBeat based mostly on BookScan’s 2023 gross sales charts.
Of the 44.7 million graphic novels bought by BookScan, practically 21.8 million copies (49%) had been discovered to be manga, whereas kids’s comics represented roughly 17 million copies (38%).
Of the remaining 5.9 million copies, roughly 13% had been primarily adult-oriented graphic novels. The whole calculated retail worth of those gross sales fell by greater than 13% in comparison with the earlier yr.
Even with the recession, ICv2’s white paper famous that manga stays dominant when it comes to shopper pursuits. In contrast to superhero content material, which is commonly distributed in single-issue codecs, the graphic novel format of manga provides it a major lead in total recognition when all codecs are in contrast.
Manga titles additionally continued to carry out strongly at comedian e book retailers, in keeping with ICv2 information for summer season 2024. The highest 5 best-selling manga titles are:
- Chainsaw Man Vol. 15 – VIZ Media
- Berserk Deluxe Version Vol. 1 – Darkish Horse Comics
- Jujutsu Kaisen Vol. 1 – VIZ Media
- Junji Ito Story Assortment HC Vol. Alley 13 – VIZ Media
- Chainsaw Man Vol. 1 – VIZ Media
Remarkably, 78% of complete comedian e book gross sales in North America by 2023 got here from graphic novels, together with print manga and webtoonswhereas single-issue periodical comics accounted for 22%.
One other element revealed by the white paper was that whereas webtoons are common in bookstores, they haven’t achieved the identical success in comedian e book shops.
ICv2’s report highlights how webtoons are categorized as “creator graphic novels,” which may clarify their absence from manga charts.
This distinction between shopper habits in bookstores and comedian outlets was clearly seen, with titles akin to Solo leveling performs higher in common shops than in specialty comedian shops.
This decline follows a broader pattern, with the general market within the US and Canada shrinking by about 7%. Nonetheless, gross sales stay 67% larger than pre-pandemic ranges in 2019.
An important change in ICv2’s 2023 methodology is the exclusion of download-to-own digital comedian gross sales from the report. ICv2 defined that subscriptions at the moment are a rising a part of the digital comics house, and the shift in methodology displays the problem of precisely monitoring subscription gross sales.
