Sales of graphic novels in the book channel, as tracked by Circana BookScan, were up year over year in 2025, and the industry seems to have established a new baseline, according to Kristen McLean, Senior Executive Director at the Circana Entertainment Knowledge Group. McLean gave an overview of graphic novels in bookstores during ComicsPRO’s Sneak Peek pre-conference event on February 5, 2026.
Overall, unit sales of comics and graphic novels in the book channel went up 5% in 2025 compared to the year before, with a 42% increase since 2020. “We have retained a fair amount of our new readers, particularly in manga, that we got during the pandemic,” she said, “and I would say that this is the new benchmark for us as an industry.” Unit sales of Adult graphic novels rose by 9% and Juvenile by 4%, while Young Adult, a very small category, declined by 35%.
Manga and other East Asian comics were up 11% year over year, and anime continues to correlate with manga sales, but there’s more to it than just that: “There is a really interesting core of fans that are paying attention and are passionate about this, and are pulling things forward, not just sort of blindly waiting for what’s on TV, which I think is really interesting,” she said.
The top-growing properties in the Juvenile category in 2025 were the Warriors books from HarperAlley (see “Full Year 2025 BookScan”) and the Wings of Fire, Dog Man, and I Survived series from Graphix, as well as the single volume The New Girl (a second volume is coming in May 2026). “It’s really about the bestsellers getting bigger,” she said. “It’s a lot of box sets and series.”
In the superhero category, the best sellers were DC’s Compact Comics and Marvel’s Premier Collections, DC’s Absolute universe, and Invincible.
Top titles in the East Asian category were JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure—Steel Ball Run, Dandadan, Blue Lock, Gachiakuta, and Solo Leveling, all of which have anime on Netflix or Crunchyroll, and Vagabond: Definitive Edition, which does not but is a deluxe edition similar to Dark Horse’s best-selling Berserk hardcovers. “Pay attention to the release schedules and what’s playing on Netflix and Crunchyroll,” McLean said, “because there’s a real direct line between that and what’s popping.”
Beyond graphic novels, the overall print book market was stable, with continued strength in the science fiction, horror, and dark fantasy genres, as well as increased interest in page-to-screen classics and LGBTQ+ romance. “Science fiction is an extremely strong trend,” McLean said. “If you carry any books outside of comics and graphic novels, I really think science fiction is where genre fiction is moving to right now.”
Source: ICv2
