Jujutsu Kaisen Manga sold more than one copy in Japan this year

Oricon revealed the list of best-selling manga of 2024, there Jujutsu Kaisen appears as the best-selling manga series this year, followed by One Piece. This is not the first time Jujutsu Kaisen is in first place on the annual chart, as the series has already done so in 2021 and 2022.

Last year, Blue lock topped the rankings, and Jujutsu Kaisen was in second place, followed by One Piece. It's important to note that the Oricon chart is about print sales, not including digital. This information is important to understand the numbers.

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The best selling manga of 2024

According to Oricon, Jujutsu Kaisen sold 7,610,995 copies, and One Piece sold 5,250,210. Other series included in the top 5 are The suitor, Apothecary Diaries and Blue lock. Haikyu!! is in 8th place, an impressive rating for a series that ended in 2020 (but the movie probably had a positive effect on sales).

From 2008 to 2018, One Piece topped the top every year. During 2019, Demon Slayer broke the “combo” and was the best-selling manga series that year. Since then, One Piece has never topped the chart again, but has always been in the top 5. All of this indicates changes in consumption patterns among manga readers, indicating more diversity and competition between comics. Until 2018, an established series dominated sales, but now different and new series are topping the charts.

But the numbers have been strange. During 2019, One Piece was second and sold 10,134,232 copies. In 2020, it ranked third, selling over 7,000 copies (Demon Slayer was first with an unprecedented 82,345,447 copies sold and Kingdom sold over 8,000 copies). Year 2021, Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer and Tokyo Revengers all sold over 20,000 copies each (Attack on Titan and One Piece sold over 7,000 copies each). In 2022, all top 4 series (incl One Piece) sold over 10,000 copies. Last year,Blue lock sold over 10,000, followed by Jujutsu Kaisen (over 8,000,000) and One Piece (over 7,000,000).

What all this points to is that from 2020 to 2022 manga consumption peaked, perhaps influenced by the covid-19 pandemic, and now the numbers seem to be dropping to a pattern similar to the numbers we've seen from 2013 to 2018. This could have many reasons : possible loss of interest from the public, dispersion of readers (the manga market has more readers, but they read different things, so sales are not too centered on any specific series) and perhaps a change in consumption format. Oricon's manga charts are based on print sales, so if readers buy or read digitally, Oricon can't judge those numbers.

What is the Oricon Chart?

The Oricon Chart is an estimate of manga sales based on information Oricon collects from bookstores and other outlets. Thus, Oricon charts do not necessarily reflect the full reality of Japanese sales, but they are a good source for understanding the market. For this reason, their numbers may differ from official publisher numbers — but publishers are generally concerned with copies in circulation (which are the copies the publisher sells to stores, so this is usually the transaction where the publishers make money), while Oricon tries to estimate actual sales to end consumers.

Source: Oricon via Josuke