Demon slayer outsold ALL american comics in 2020?

[Gaastra]

Ouch if true. Marvel, dc, idw and ALL american comics in 2020 nay have been outsold by one manga series last year!

That's not a good sign is it? What do you guys think of this? True or not?



https://comicbook.com/anime/news/dem...ndustry-manga/

Now, let's compare that figure to Demon Slayer. This one series alone is published through Shueisha who keeps records of sales from each region distributor. This means we know exactly how many copies of this manga were sold in 2020, and it is a lot. A total of 82.34 million copies of Demon Slayer were sold last year. This figure does outperform the best case estimate of the U.S. comics industry, and that is nuts in and of itself.

There is no doubt that 2020 put a major bust on industries globally in light of the pandemic. This was no different for manga or comic books, but production delays with the former were solved rather quickly. According to financial reports and various sales charts, manga exploded in popularity in 2020 with major gains year-over-year despite the pandemic. In Japan, this boost was all thanks to Demon Slayer, but those same stats aren't clear in the United States.

Note however--

However, there is no knowing whether Demon Slayer won hands down or not. It is safe to say the manga industry overall sold more than the U.S. comics industry considering just one series may have toppled it alone. But without the hard data from Diamond and other distributors, we can only guess at how divided the two industries are.

[Jabare]

Manga has been outpacing the comic industry for years for numerous reasons.


However, Korean webtoons are the hot commodity of choice these days and will continue to grow. They just haven't fully monetized it yet, but the eyeballs are there.


Comics have pivoted to a degree, but manga and webtoons still have better models for their consumers. Doesn't mean comics are going away or the industry is in peril there's just better competition.

From a corporate standpoint, Marvel and DC comics are more about branding and R&D. Those stories are investments towards bigger more lucrative projects in tv, film, videogames, merchandise, and other multimedia.

[Sacred Knight]

I think if true its not at all surprising.

[Vakanai]

Oh no comic books aren't popular anymore! Welp, get your floppies and trade paperbacks boys, we're having a bonfire!

[Mutant God]

Congrats to Demon Slayer, its a pretty cool comic

[Drako]

Yeah, it's true. But this phenomenon probably won't happen again. Demon Slayer numbers are so outlandish that if you get the year that One Piece, Bleach and Naruto sold the most numbers of copies, still didn't get even close to what Demon Slayer sold in 2020 (45m to 90m). And One Piece is the second best selling book of all time, behind only to Batman, if i'm not mistaken.

It was a perfect storm and combination of situation that can't be recreated again. The pandemic, a great anime adaptation and the movie being released. Also, this manga started being published in 2016, so people had a lot a content to catch on.

[LordMikel]

1) Terribly written article.

I wish they gave the price point for the comic.

I did my own Google research. It looks like this is a $10 larger size format comic with 22 volumes, volume 23 looks to be coming out later this year. So I'm thinking that 82 million is encompasses the entire run.

This is still impressive numbers and the writers should write the news and write how impressive sales are.

[Jabare]

Let's not forget Demon Slayer had the biggest movie at the box office by far. It blew everyone out of the water.

Also unlike many other Shonen mangas, it has a clear and concise story. How many chapters is the manga 170+?

One Piece may never end. When I started some of these mangas as a kid I didn't realize they would still be going 15 years later without any end in sight.

[Vakanai]

Let's not forget Demon Slayer had the biggest movie at the box office by far. It blew everyone out of the water.

So other movies aren't as popular anymore! Boys, get your DVD and Blu-ray collections, bonfire's gonna be burning a little higher!

[Drako]

Let's not forget Demon Slayer had the biggest movie at the box office by far. It blew everyone out of the water.

Also unlike many other Shonen mangas, it has a clear and concise story. How many chapters is the manga 170+?

One Piece may never end. When I started some of these mangas as a kid I didn't realize they would still be going 15 years later without any end in sight.

Demon Slayer is already finished.
One Piece is in its final stretch, but that can be like five more years.

[Primal Slayer]

Doesn't seem suprising. Like others have manga has been big for awhile now and the comic industry isnt adapting.

[Jabare]

Demon Slayer is already finished.
One Piece is in its final stretch, but that can be like five more years.

I know I finished the manga, which is why it was refreshing. You have to go back to Yu Yu Hakusho for a comp like this, a hit series that ran for a reasonable length of time with a well-plotted out the beginning middle, and end. Oftentimes series will run too long or lose their way. You'll end up with the Dragonball series or the Naruto series. Or maybe the series will go downhill like Bleach and never pan out like fans hoped it would. Or you get those series that will never finish like Berserk or Vinland saga. It's not like those works are failures by any stretch, there are highly creative elements and good arcs in there but the overall narrative suffers because of a poor conclusion or lack of one.

Maybe that's just me. I appreciated that several series I started in the early 2000s have concluded. I'm grateful Inuyasha, Naruto and others received endings (despite getting spinoffs ....). However, looking back on some of those series, their long runs have probably dulled my appreciation for those works overall. And as a reader, your expectation is different for mangas and animes. You expect the universe to grow and evolve whereas longtime Marvel and DC readers have comics to expect more static universes. There are some exceptions (Detective Conan, etc.).

Not to say all long stories are bad. Many long-running novels do a great job such as Wheel of Time (mind you Robert Jordan died before the series was finished and Brandon Sanderson had to come in and finish the story with his notes....and let me tell you there was a noticeable difference in there writing styles)

but I digress

Also, they've been saying One Piece was on its back 9 for years, yet there are still so many questions left unanswered

[Frontier]

Good for Demon Slayer but I'm not sure how relevant this is to DC...?

[HsssH]

Good for Demon Slayer but I'm not sure how relevant this is to DC...?

This is probably somehow related to DC going out of business because Demon Slayer sold more copies than entire DC universe.

[Jabare]

DC is not going out of business