Here's How Japanese Manga Started Outselling American Comic Books in the West (2024)

For fans of American comics and graphic novels, there are now two major factions competing in the comics market: Western comics (particularly those published by The Big Two, namely DC Comics and Marvel Comics), and the vast world of Japanese manga. "Manga" is quite literally the Japanese version of comics, but it's also a unique art form of its own that's been seen as equal to comics for decades. But in recent years, manga has clearly overtaken comics, both in sales and in cultural relevance.

Even in the West (particularly in the United States of America), where comics are seen as the mainstream and have been around for decades, manga has been consistently outselling American comics. Even with action figures and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) bolstering consumers' interest, comics compared poorly to manga in some key areas, from their common perception to simple price. Every consumer has their own preference, and there may be no single right answer that explains how manga won the long game in the Manga vs. Comics battle, but manga undeniably did some things better than comics.

Updated on June 21st, 2024 by Louis Kemner: Why is manga outselling comics? Why should Western consumers try manga like Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man? These questions and more are easy to answer when pop culture fans check out the data and take note of media trends in recent years. Thus, this feature about the financial battle of manga vs comics has been updated with more information.

Manga Offered Better Prices & Consumer Convenience

These trends suggest that around the world, mainstream shōnen action series are the real meat of the matter, though there's ample room for other genres, such as drama in Oshi no Ko and traditional high fantasy in Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. Shōnen action is carrying the manga industry, but ultimately, there's something for everyone here.

Many news sources state that manga has been selling incredibly well in the West within the last few years, and titles such as Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, and My Hero Academia all appeared on bestseller lists with impressive regularity. As Publishers Weekly cited, manga sales accounted for almost 45% of all comic books sold in 2022. Manga sales also outpaced the once-dominant children's comics and helped revive comic sales in 2022. This was important since the COVID-19 pandemic decimated countless industries. Publishers Weekly also credited the surge of interest in manga to anime's unstoppable mainstream popularity. For comparison's sake and as per Business Insider, comic sales in 2021 hit record-breaking sales of $2.075 billion, with manga accounting for $1.47 billion. Attack on Titan was specifically cited as one of the best-selling manga titles of 2021. Meanwhile, single comics issues (which are comics' classic format) only accounted for $435 million. Clearly, manga was more mainstream and popular than ever.

On the practical side of things, manga may have come out as the victor of Manga vs. Comics because of prices and shopping venues. It was simply more budget-friendly to get into manga than comics, especially when comparing the book's page count of a product to the sticker price. Single comics issues (which are around 22 pages long) may seem cheap since they cost around $5 per issue. Graphic novels or collections that have 100 pages at the very least can go for as low as $10, depending on the title. However, a typical manga volume (or tankobon) may have around 160 to 180 pages for around $10. This was an excellent ratio for any consumer. Even if manga pages were printed in black and white as opposed to richly colored comics, a single manga volume's sheer value was tough to beat.

Another factor behind manga's victory when it came to manga vs. comics was where readers can find comics and manga, not just how much they must pay for them. Comic books are usually sold in specialty hobby stores, and such shops have a reputation for being intensely "geeky" places with a very specific type of clientele. Comic shops heavily cater to readers who are already deeply invested in comics' robust but relatively narrow culture. Comic book movies' pop culture dominance has done little to change or improve the perception that comics were a generally male-dominated and juvenile space. Certain comics fandoms' hostility and toxicity also further soured the medium's reputation in the public eye. Conversely, and despite the anime community's own fair share of controversies, manga felt more universal, and not just because of the stories found within.

Manga volumes are usually sold as paperback or hardback books, and they nearly always appear in mainstream bookstores such as Barnes and Noble. Such locations are open and more welcoming to any book lover, not just comic fans who were already part of a certain fandom. This gives Japanese manga far more visibility for shoppers and potential newcomers, and this helps minimize manga's geeky aura. Anyone who visits their local Barnes and Noble in search of something fun to read will see not just romance novels and famous fantasy series, but also a huge section of manga that caters to every kind of reader out there. Manga actually has more in common with comics than it does with typical Barnes and Noble fare. Reading manga may be just as "nerdy" a hobby as comics, but it may not feel that way to the average reader who's looking for some fun summer reading material because of where it's sold, and who buys it. This was more than enough to make all the difference.

Manga Has a Lower Barrier of Entry for New Readers Than Comics Do

Another advantage to reading manga vs comics was its very low barrier of entry. At worst, manga suffers from being read right to left, which may be mildly disorienting to new readers. Manga also tends to feature stories with slower pacing when compared to comics, due in part to the fact that it was designed to be released every week in Japan. Comics, conversely, are released monthly, meaning a single issue's pace is faster and more concise than a full manga volume. For example, a face-off between two super-powered characters can be concluded in one comic issue but can take multiple manga volumes to finish. Fortunately for the manga industry, manga's narrative advantages are much bigger, starting with how linear manga is.

Any manga series has one straightforward story, and the volumes go in order and beyond (ex. Volume 1 is followed by Volumes 2 and 3, and so forth). This makes manga more similar to serialized novels that are meant to be read in order. On the other hand, comics tend to be all over the place. Even if comic publishers make an effort to provide clear entry points and detailed guides for their countless rebooted universes, alternate universes, and new storylines, it can still be too daunting and overwhelming for potential newcomers to even start. Manga doesn't suffer from a confusing, decades-old web of interconnected stories, endless retcons, and alternate continuities to sort through.

Manga that came with such baggage like the sprawling cosmic epic that is Dragon Ball or Mobile Suit Gundam's different centuries and histories were the exceptions, not the rule. Meanwhile, this kind of imposing world-building was the norm in comics. Every mainstream superhero, like Spawn or Wonder Woman, had tons of lore and continuities for newcomers to study. This hasn't even covered the team comics, which starred multiple characters with their own individual histories separate from the team's united stories. Things often get so convoluted in comics that even a complete continuity reboot like the X-Men's Krakoa Era was still built on the X-Men's countless past iterations.

Manga may also be selling better than comics because of their more accessible content. Comics appealed greatly to superhero enthusiasts and fans of gritty, hypermasculine deconstructions of the former. It's hard not to see comics as a juvenile art form and hobby mainly made for men by men. Comics made for different genres, ages, and genders have always been around, and the industry has recently taken great strides to diversify the artists they hire and to whom they sell comics to. It's also worth noting that indie comics have been going strong since the '90s, with the late 2010's being a great time for new indie artists and writers. However, these tend to be overshadowed by the mainstream, "manly" titles and genres.

What's more, the industry still predominantly caters to male-coded interests, like action, crime, horror, and sci-fi. This prevailing mindset was partly the reason why Batman continues to be the highest-selling superhero comics, and why violent action comics like BRZRKR will always have an audience. This self-imposed rigidity greatly limited who bought comics or made them, making the medium too niche when contrasted to the endless possibilities of manga. Sales reflected the ever-widening divide between manga vs. comics.

The manga industry also suffers from its own problems and its own version of the systematic sexism that's been holding comics back for decades, but it undeniably pushed more genres and kinds of stories than comics do. Only the already dedicated fans would spend serious cash on yet another reboot of The Avengers or Superman, or on another reprint of one of DC's or Marvel's iconic storylines from yesteryear. Conversely, anyone can fall in love with the more down-to-earth stories found in slice-of-life, romance, and comedy manga series. Manga has plenty of action series too, such as Shōnen Jump's ongoing Dark Trio (which are successors of the legendary Big Three) and seinen titles like Vagabond and Berserk, but manga as a whole simply has more variety.

This, unsurprisingly, attracts far more readers, especially younger ones. A diverse portfolio, along with its low barriers to entry, high visibility in bookstores, and excellent prices, makes manga the industry juggernaut it is, beating comics at their game on their home turf. When it comes to manga vs. comics, manga was the clear winner.

Manga Doesn't Have the Subjectively "Geeky" Stigma That Comic Books Do

On a more subjective note, the manga industry may have an advantage over comic books in the West for one simple reason: they aren't a stereotypically "geeky" hobby like comics are perceived to be. Of course, graphic novels and comics have legitimacy as an art form, and many great stories are told in comic form, but even so, the stigma persists. Often unfairly, comics are stereotyped as a hobby that most people think is beneath them. Plenty of consumers have a negative image in mind when picturing comic books and their patrons, and that stigma leads many to not just reject comics, but mock the very idea of reading and enjoying them. There are many grounds on which to defend comics from that view, but that's another topic.

Meanwhile, the Japanese manga industry seems to have very little, if any, of that stigma in the West. At worst, everyday consumers simply don't know what manga is, or they politely decline to dive into this hobby, preferring other media such as paperback novels and TV shows. In some ways, being exotic and foreign can hold back manga's progress in the West, but on the plus side, manga isn't deeply entrenched as "that geeky loser hobby" like comics sometimes are. Instead, manga feels fresh and new, and it certainly is, compared to decades-old franchises like Superman and X-Men. Manga has a clean slate and has no serious baggage, unlike comics, so consumers can approach manga fairly and judge it purely on its own merits.

Manga has been published in the West for a few decades now, but it's mostly within the last 10 years — or even just the last five years — when manga really took off and became mainstream rather than a niche hobby. The timing is good, too, because pop culture and "geeky" things are more mainstream and substantial than ever, partly thanks to the likes of the MCU. It's now cool to like comics of all kinds, and while that certainly benefits the American comic industry somewhat, it may help manga even more, which is free of comics' long-standing stigma. That may have helped Japanese manga explosively rise to prominence and make up for lost time with incredible sales. In short, manga became popular at just the right time and made a strong, fresh impression on consumers who are just now asking what Demon Slayer and Oshi no Ko and the like are supposed to be and whether they're worth reading.