For the First Time in 20 Years, Shounen Jump Manga Didn't Top the Monthly Sales: Blue Lock Did

Summary:

• Blue Lock became the top-selling manga of 2023 in Japan, surpassing all of Shounen Jump titles for the first time in 20 years.
• Previously, the charts were dominated by One Piece.
• The surge in popularity of Blue Lock can be traced to the anime release, lack of competitors, and overwhelming marketing.
• Don't forget the World Cup 2022.
• This proves that Shueisha has a strong competitor in the manga market which may bring us more interesting stories.

Judging by the data provided by the manga sales tracker Oricon, the 2023 best-selling manga is Blue Lock. It has sold 10.527.146 copies this year and landed in first place. This in itself is an achievement, but it's also the first time in the last 20 years that the top-seller manga is not one of the Shounen Jump Titles: Blue Lock is published by Kodansha, a rival publishing house to Shueisha that owns Shounen Jump.

The statistics say that for the past 20 years, sales were mostly dominated by One Piece. In 2005 Oda's masterpiece was dethroned by Nana, and in 2006 — by Death Note. But then it reigned with no interruptions until Demon Slayer (Kimetsu No Yaiba) came and took the first spot in 2019 and 2020 and then was followed by Jujutsu Kaisen, which topped the charts in 2021 and 2022. However, all of these titles were published by Shueisha, which cannot be said about Blue Lock. And this year One Piece is in third place.

Anime is the advertisement for the manga

There is a reason why Blue Lock experienced a huge surge in sales: it's because of the anime airing and prompting those who got captivated by the story to buy manga. A similar thing boosted the sales of Jujutsu Kaisen manga in 2021.

Another reason for Blue Lock's success is the lack of recent competitors: Demon Slayer manga has ended, and Juutsu Kaisen has released only 3 volumes this year, not 4, and sold 8.54 million copies. Also, there's no new sports manga to follow that updates regularly, and the enjoyers of the genre just flocked to this series after Haikyuu!! and Kuroko's Basketball (Kuroko no Basket) ended.

Clever marketing helps

The marketing team for Blue Lock works relentlessly: the advertising is all over Japan, plastered at Shibuya and in supermarkets. Currently, the franchises that can rival it in terms of being all over the place in Japan are Spy x Family, Oshi no Ko, and Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin).

And don't forget about the World Cup 2022: with Blue Losk being a soccer manga and its artist collaborating with the team on designing their uniform, the surge in popularity was guaranteed.

This development shows that the manga landscape has become more competitive. After 20 years of reigning at the top, Shueisha now faces some challenges and this probably will bring us, the readers, more interesting stories.