Highest selling WSJ manga

[Fantastische Hure]

1) One-Piece
2) DragonBall
3) Kochikame
4) Naruto
5) Slam-Dunk
6) Bleach
7) Jo-Jo's Bizarre-Adventure
8) Hunter x Hunter
9) Rurouni-Kenshin
10) Yu-Yu-Hakusho

I came-across the 2013 version of the media-guide, when I was looking-up Yu-Yu-Hakusho. I then wanted to see whether there was a more recent one and saw the 2014 media-guide from Shueisha.

http://web.archive.org/web/20140430025858/http://adnavi.shueisha.co.jp/mediaguide/2014/pdf/boys.pdf

I doubt much has changed since this either-way other than more active series taking a higher lead (like DragonBall).

I recently saw how popular Slam-Dunk was, but still with only 31 volumes and still not that much away from DragonBall (which is 42 volumes).

 

[SSJ2]

Yugioh sold more than HxH.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

hiatus x hiatus

 

[SSJ2]

But for real what is #3? Never heard of it.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

it was like a never-ending series in japan or something like that (like a sit-com maybe) l0l

i think it started in the 70s & only ended relatively recently so it's got over 100 volumes i think

 

[SSJ2]

It was serialized for 40 years lol. Holy shit

 

[Captain Cadaver]

But for real what is #3? Never heard of it.

Kochikame (full title: Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen Mae Hashutsujo) is a gag manga that ran from 1976-2016, ending at 200 volumes, a main reason for its sales. It currently holds the world record for most sold comic/graphic novel title I believe.

The version in the OP is outdated though, given the list of best selling manga on Wikipedia has Naruto above Kochikame and the 2013 list is missing Hokuto no Ken which has sold as many as JoJo. The current list (in terms of volume sales) would be:

#1 - One Piece (Over 462 million sales)
#2 - Dragon Ball (Over 300 million sales)
#3 - Naruto (Over 250 million sales)
#4 - Kochikame (Over 157 million sales)
#5 - Slam Dunk (Over 126 million sales)
#6 - Bleach (Over 120 million sales)
#7 - Hokuto no Ken (Over 100 million sales)
#8 - JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (Over 100 million sales)
#9 - Hunter X Hunter (Over 78 million sales)
#10 - Kinnikuman (Over 75 million sales)

 

[Fantastische Hure]

i don't know whether they included series that continued in other magazines. that's why i'm not sure about part 8 of JJBA.

the reason i posted this 1 tho was because what's better than from the horse's mouth? other one's could get it wrong, but sheuisha would know it & i don't think they'd manipulate it, considering this is a media-guide

 

[SSJ2]

Naruto and Bleach >>> HxH confirmed.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

i don't know whether they included series that continued in other magazines. that's why i'm not sure about part 8 of JJBA.

Considering it was from quite a few years ago and JoJo's placement hasn't changed, I'd assume it counts considering it started running in Ultra Jump as of 2004.

the reason i posted this 1 tho was because what's better than from the horse's mouth? other one's could get it wrong, but sheuisha would know it & i don't think they'd manipulate it, considering this is a media-guide

I don't doubt its authenticity at the time, but it was from 7 years ago and a lot of manga sales have changed since then. Naruto had a huge boost in sales both nationally and internationally at the time of its manga ending in 2013 as did Bleach in 2016, with DB having gone through a major boost in popularity from new content such as Super.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

i mean how did hokuto no ken go from not being in the top 10 to being over 100 million? it wasn't published by shueisha after its original run either if i'm seeing right

 

[Captain Cadaver]

It had an Ultimate Edition released during 2013 until 2014 that got a fair bit of advertisement in Japan, not to mention a lot of spinoff material since then such as the DD Hokuto no Ken anime and various video games. 2013 was also its 30th anniversary, which led to a lot of traction being given to it as the year went on.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

i don't know

i didn't really hear much

2013 seemed more like the year DragonBall came-back

& none of the spin-offs seemed to have been notable in any way (maybe i'm wrong)

i don't know if that could have more than doubled hokuto no ken's sale than at its peak

 

[Captain Cadaver]

I'm pretty sure the Media Guide only took into account domestic sales though, considering it had DB's sales at 159.5mil. Hokuto no Ken is on par with Dragon Ball's popularity in Italy (at least among the Gen X age range), as well as to a lesser extent Mexico and Brazil.
The source of the updated figure, Mainichi Shimbun is also one of the most popular and well regarded newspapers in Japan, so it's unlikely to be false. The older figure (which was around 2012-2013) could simply be an oversight on Shueisha's part, considering they don't tend to keep track on the updated figures for completed series or ones where the mangaka no longer work in Jump too often (iirc, the creators of HnK had a falling out with Shueisha's staff some years ago and quit creating manga in Jump) and may have only tallied things up after the Media Guide statistics.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

ye, i was thinking that too but still if hokuto no ken was so hyped in 2013 & 2014 i thought hearing abt anime/manga i might have heard abt it.

even so i think 6 years some-how making-up for 30 years before that, including the series at its height makes it hard for me to believe. even most of the spin-offs seem to have ended before 2014.

i'm also seeing that they printed another edition from september 2013 to july 2014, but still.

also i'd think that if shueisha really wanted to create a list of the top 10 highest-selling they'd at-least try & look through all of the history, but who knows maybe you're right

 

[Captain Cadaver]

A lot can change in those 6-7 years compared to prior when taking into account the advancements made in technology and ease of access for information that would get a lot more people interested in certain series in greater amounts than in prior decades.

After looking into it further, it appears the 100mil figure is when accounting international sales. HnK's domestic sales number at up to 60mil, whereas international sales make up 40mil.
https://www.comipress.com/article/2008/12/31/3733
https://www.mangazenkan.com/ranking/books-circulation.html

 

[Fantastische Hure]

maybe that's right

weird, tho

it says circulating on the side, yet says best selling

circulating means how many have been printed & are in stores & so-on right?! maybe it's using the terms interchangeably

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Pretty unlikely, considering most sources make it apparent Hokuto no Ken's volume count in circulation is at least above 1.1 billion. It's most likely they made an error with the table layout by not changing "circulation" to "copies sold" in the last table, considering the numbers of the last table line up with all the other sources for domestic sales for the other series contained there.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

[mention]Captain Cadaver[/mention] wot do u think of this, if u can & want to say?

https://web.archive.org/web/20021202155245/http://www.konami.co.jp/press/2001/05/061/r.13.05.08-e.html

^that says yu-gi-oh! sold 30 million by may of 2001, when only 23 volumes were released in japan. that's more than wot shows in the 1st link u posted & this was also when the series wasn't even close to finished i think.

when looking at wikipedia, that says the yu-gi-oh! manga was already released in france at a consistent schedule, do u think france (& other countries where the series might have been released by this time) was also counted in that statement of 30 million copies sold, if u can & want to say? how much could that have made-up for the sales of the manga tho?

also kimetsu no yaiba is definitely on the list now i think l0l.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

It probably only takes into account the international sales when considering most sources from the past few years cite the current sales at 40 million+ and it seems pretty doubtful they'd have only increased by 10 million despite YGO's international popularity not peaking until after 2002 I believe and the figure at the time being before the last 15 tankoban were published. Hard to imagine it not making a lot more when considering its international popularity. Then again, the 40 million figure from the Manga Zenkan may only be taking into account the Japanese sales.

Kimetsu no Yaiba's sales exploded in the past few years to over 120 million, though that's only when taking into account its virtual sales as with Shingeki no Kyojin and Kingdom as physical sales would've been low this year for obvious reasons.