Manga sales were up around 9% in 2022 after massive growth in the previous two years, according to an ICv2 analysis of sales data from NPD BookScan for the book channel, and from POS system ComicHub for the comic store channel. By absolute standards, a 9% growth rate would be a great year, but it’s a piker compared to the 134% manga growth rate in 2021, and the 30% growth rate in 2020 (see “ICv2 White Paper 2022“). But 9% growth in 2022 tops an impressive three-year showing for the North American manga market, which had already been growing in the late teens (albeit at a much slower pace).
Manga sales in comic stores, a much smaller channel for manga than the book channel, grew faster in 2022, at a 12.5% rate (vs. 8.9% in the book channel). This flips a trend from 2021, when the book channel grew at a 137% rate and the comic store channel doubled (100% growth rate).
NPD BookScan collects weekly point-of-sale data on print books from over 16,000 locations including e-tailers, chains, mass merchandisers, independent bookstores, and more. NPD BookScan covers approximately 85% of the U.S. trade print book market.
The ComicHub POS system tracks sales at stores selling American comics around the world. During the period for which these reports were generated, there were over 125 stores using the ComicHub system, a small, non-random sample of over 3,000 stores selling American comics worldwide, representing a variety of locations and store emphases.
For more Manga Week coverage, click here.
Source: ICv2
