10 Best-Selling Manga of All Time (2024)

The manga industry is one that just keeps getting bigger with every year, and there are naturally some manga that end up becoming best-sellers. While anime tends to be the field that gets the most attention, manga is just as big of an industry, if not bigger. Naturally, many of the most popular anime wouldn’t exist if they didn’t have a manga to be adapted from, and that creates a symbiotic relationship where the success of a manga helps make its anime more successful which, in turn, helps make the manga even more successful.

Many of the best-selling manga have the benefit of being around for decades and accumulating massive amounts of sales accordingly, but in some cases, a relatively new manga was able to resonate with people so well that it would sell an unbelievable amount in a short amount of time.

Whatever the case, it’s not unheard of for a manga to sell hundreds of millions of copies during its run, and that’s led to a select few ranking among the most successful of all time. These rankings are based on volumes sold, not on the chapters published in weekly or monthly magazines.

10 Crayon Shin-Chan (1990)

Approximate Sales: 148 Million

Yosh*to Usui’s Crayon Shin-chan is a slice-of-life manga about the adventures of Shinnosuke "Shin" Nohara, a five-year-old boy with a rambunctious attitude and a proclivity for raunchy jokes and double-entendre. Following Usui's death in 2009, the manga was taken over by his production team, UY Team, and relaunched as New Crayon Shin-Chan, with the manga still going on to this day.

For over 30 years, Shin-chan has struck a chord with people for how effortlessly it switches between childish comedy and raunchy humor, something especially emphasized by the anime’s English dub, and at the time of writing, Crayon Shin-chan has sold approximately 148 million copies worldwide to be the tenth best-selling manga of all time. The series might not be as well-known in the West as many manga both above and below it in sales, but Crayon Shin-chan’s success can’t be denied, and it’s easily one of the biggest anime franchises of all time.

9 Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba (2016)

Approximate Sales: 150 Million

In Koyoharu Gotouge’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Tanjiro Kamado returns to his home from the market one day to find his family brutally murdered by demons. Only his sister, Nezuko, survived, but the incident caused her to turn into a demon, so Tanjiro must now become a Demon Slayer to help rid the world of demons and find a way to turn his sister back to normal.

The massive success of Demon Slayer’s anime, especially its movie, Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, caused the manga’s sales to skyrocket at a truly unprecedented level, and with approximately 150 million copies sold worldwide, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba stands out as the ninth best-selling manga of all time. The manga ended in 2020, but with the anime still going strong, it wouldn’t be surprising if its success was enough to make its sales rise even higher over the years.

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8 KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops (1976)

Approximate Sales: 157.2 Million

Osamu Akimoto’s KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops, one of the best manga that doesn't have an official English translation, follows the adventures of Kankichi "Ryo" Ryotsu, a manchild of a police officer who, along with his coworkers, spends more time goofing off than he does doing actual police work. The series is famous for its satire of not just anime and manga, but Japanese culture, as a whole, and in a similar vein to The Simpsons, it's even featured a multitude of cameos from real-life celebrities.

With a 40-year run, KochiKame was the second longest-running manga of all time after Takao Saito’s Golgo 13, and thanks to its incredibly long serialization, KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops has managed to sell approximately 157.2 million copies worldwide, making it the eighth best-selling manga of all time.KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops is another manga many people outside of Japan are unlikely to be familiar with, but its comedic, satirical stylings have still allowed it to mark a notable place for itself in the history of manga, regardless.

7 Slam Dunk (1990)

Approximate Sales: 170 Million

Takehiko Inoue’s Slam Dunk stars Hanamichi Sakuragi, a delinquent high schooler who joins his school's basketball team to impress a girl he likes. As Sakuragi spends more time learning about basketball, however, not only does he start to genuinely love the game, but he and everyone else start to realize that his talk of being a genius might have some truth to it, after all.

Slam Dunk has long been a staple of the sports genre, and with approximately 170 million copies sold worldwide, Slam Dunk stands out as the seventh best-selling manga of all time. Just in 2023, Slam Dunk sold 4.9 million copies to be the sixth best-selling manga of 2023, and the fact that it could do so decades after it ended is nothing but a pure testament to how much success and goodwill it has garnered over the years.

6 Naruto (1999)

Approximate Sales: 250 Million

Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto stars the titular Naruto, an up-and-coming ninja who's spent his whole life being ostracized for being the vessel of the legendary Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. Naruto seeks to prove himself by becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village, to earn everyone's respect, and his quest to do so leads to him being at the heart of a conflict to determine the fate of the entire world.

With how big of a success the anime and manga have been, it’s unsurprising that Naruto would be one of the best-selling manga of all time. As one of the “Big Three” of shonen manga, Naruto was one of the biggest series of the 2000s and 2010s, and with approximately 250 million copies sold worldwide, Naruto holds the honor of being the sixth best-selling manga of all time. Naruto might have ended in 2014, but with it having sequel stories in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations and Boruto: Two Blue Vortex, the franchise is still as strong as ever.

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5 Doraemon (1969)

Approximate Sales: 250 Million

Fujiko F. Fujio’s Doraemon, one of the best manga and anime franchises that's bigger in Japan than America, is centered around Nobita Nobi, a complete loser who fails at everything he tries in life. Things end up so bad for Nobita that one of his descendants builds Doraemon, a robot cat who travels back in time to fix Nobita's life, although he tends to have very little success in doing so.

Having been around since 1969, Doraemon is one of the oldest manga franchises around, and with approximately 250 million copies sold worldwide, Doraemon is definitively the fifth best-selling manga of all time. While the original manga ended in 1996 due to the death of the writer half of the duo, Hiroshi Fujimoto, Doraemon has long since maintained relevancy with its various anime series and movies, and that’s led to it being one of the biggest and most iconic anime franchises of all time.

4 Detective Conan (1994)

Approximate Sales: 270 Million

Gosho Aoyama’s Case Closed, better known as Detective Conan, stars Shinichi Kudo, a teen detective prodigy who's turned into a child by an experimental drug of the mysterious Black Organization. Now living under the disguise of Conan Edogawa, Shinichi has to do what he can to uncover the truth of the Black Organization to both take him down and get his body back to normal.

Detective Conan’s use of suspense and murder mystery, both episodically and in a serialized narrative, have made it an iconic part of Weekly Shonen Sunday’s lineup, and with approximately 270 million copies sold worldwide, Detective Conan stands out as the fourth best-selling manga of all time. Similar to One Piece, Detective Conan is a long-running manga where it’s hard to tell when it can be expected to end, but regardless, that longevity has allowed it to become one of the biggest anime franchises of all time.

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3 Golgo 13 (1968)

Approximate Sales: 300 Million

Takao Saito's Golgo 13, the longest-running manga of all time, stars the titular Golgo 13, a professional assassin who takes jobs of varying seriousness, no matter who he may cross, all with his signature M16 rifle. While Saito died in 2021, the series has been continued by his production company, Saito Production, something that Saito had given his approval of before his death.

Having been serialized on and off since 1968 both before and after Takao Saito’s death in 2021, Golgo 13 holds the world record for the highest number of volumes for a manga at 209 volumes, and with approximately 300 million copies sold worldwide, Golgo 13 is the third best-selling manga of all time. Golgo 13 has allegedly been heading toward a conclusion since 2015, and by the time it finally gets there, it’ll undoubtedly have become an even bigger success than it already is.

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2 Dragon Ball (1984)

Approximate Sales: 300 Million

Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball is a classic manga about the adventures of Son Goku, a super powerful boy with a monkey tail who loves to fight solely for the sake of bettering himself. While Dragon Ball started as a comedic action-fantasy series loosely based on Journey to the West, it gradually transitioned into a sci-fi epic with more serious storytelling and battles of increasingly epic scale.

Dragon Ball is easily one of the biggest anime franchises of all time, and the original manga is appropriately one of the best-selling manga of all time. Dragon Ball was one the most successful manga to ever be published in Weekly Shonen Jump, and with approximately 300 million copies sold worldwide, Dragon Ball stands out as the second best-selling manga of all time. With Dragon Ball Super and the upcoming Dragon Ball DAIMA, Dragon Ball is the liveliest it’s been in decades, and its success as a franchise is likely to only increase as the years go on.

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1 One Piece (1997)

Approximate Sales: Over 500 Million

Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece tells the story of a world in the midst of a Great Age of Piracy as pirates search the world for the One Piece, the legendary treasure that will make anyone who obtains it the King of the Pirates. Among the people looking for it is Monkey D. Luffy, a boy with a straw hat and a body made of rubber, and despite how new he and his crew are to everything, Luffy will show everyone that he can't be ignored in the race to become king.

One Piece has risen to become the biggest anime franchise of all time over the past 27 years and the most successful of the “Big Three” of shonen manga, and with over 500 million copies sold worldwide, One Piece definitively stands out as the number one best-selling manga of all time. One Piece recently entered its final saga, and by the time the series finally comes to a close, it will undoubtedly find even more success and further establish itself as one of the best-selling manga of all time.

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Sources: MangaCodex, HITC, Anime News Network, Comicbook.com.