2024's Best-Selling Manga Show How Effective A Good Anime Can Be

Summary Many of 2024's best-selling manga received boosts in sales thanks to their anime adaptations.

Haikyu!! and Mashle: Magic and Muscles became best-sellers thanks to their anime, despite both manga having ended.

The next best-selling manga of 2024 will likely be the ones with the best anime adaptations.

It’s common for a manga to get a tremendous sales boost thanks to a popular anime adaptation. This has happened numerous times in recent years with manga like Jujutsu Kaisen, Blue Lock, and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, and while not every manga with an anime has become as popular as them, there’s definitely a correlation between the success of an anime and the success of its manga.

A good anime adaptation can do a lot for a manga’s popularity, as proved by Oricon's mid-year 2024 manga sales figures. These sales figures, translated and shared on X by user @Josu_ke, show the best-selling manga of the first half of 2024, and while there are some obvious inclusions like One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Blue Lock, there are some manga that seem to have surged in popularity overnight.

It’s clear that some of 2024’s best-selling manga are ones that had popular anime airing recently, and for a few manga, in particular, their sales do an especially good job of proving that idea.

Oricon Inc. is a Japanese holding company that supplies statistics and information on the entertainment industry in Japan, mostly relating to music, but also including manga volumes' sales.

Frieren, Apothecary Diaries, Haikyu!!, & Mashle’s Anime Made Their Manga Massive Hits

2024's best-selling manga all had incredible anime

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While Jujutsu Kaisen sits stably at number 1, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, The Apothecary Diaries, Haikyu!!, and Mashle: Magic and Muscles are the second, third, sixth, and ninth-best-selling manga of 2024, so far, and it’s easy to see why. Much like Jujutsu Kaisen, Frieren and Apothecary Diaries had massively popular anime airing in the fall of 2023, with Frieren’s anime even being regarded as one of the best anime of the decade by the end of its run. As such, it’s only natural that the popularity of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and The Apothecary Diaries’ anime would give their manga an incredible boost in sales.

Even more impressive, despite their lower sales figures, is the inclusion of Haikyu!! and Mashle: Magic and Muscles in the top ten. Both manga ended their runs quite some time ago, Mashle one year ago and Haikyu!! four years ago, but Mashle season 2 and the new Haikyu!! movie both premiered in early 2024, and both were met with largely positive reception. Both Mashle: Magic and Muscles and Haikyu!! show that a good anime can always give manga a boost in sales, even after the end of its serialization.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End sold approximately 4.3 million books; The Apothecary Diaries 3.7; Haikyu!! 1.8, and Mashle: Magic and Muscles 1.27.

How The Best-Selling Manga of 2024 Might Change Through the Year

2024 is already showing how much a good anime can affect a manga’s sales, and the current standings could very well change because of that. Go! Go! Loser Ranger!’s anime has been good enough to warrant a boost in sales, and depending on how their adaptations go, the same could be said of Blue Box and Dandadan, as well. There’s no way to know which manga will be the most successful by the end of 2024, but based on the current figures, it will all come down to which ones have the best anime adaptations.

Source: Oricon (translated and shared by @Jo_suke on X).