

I was reading by accident that manga sales now are like 4 times american comic
sales.

> Manga reached record sales numbers in 2020, earning an estimated $5.6
> billion in Japan alone, according to Megan Peters. Meanwhile, that same year
> American comics earned $1.28 billion in North America, according to a joint
> survey by ICv2 and Comichron.

[Japanese manga dominating American
comics](https://thenewsfeednrv.com/2023/02/09/japanese-manga-is-dominating-
american-
comics/#:%7E:text=Manga%20reached%20record%20sales%20numbers,survey%20by%20ICv2%20and%20Comichron.)

I also saw manga sale figures for 1995 in Japan compared to the oldest I could
find of american comics (2012 if I recall correctly) and the difference was
even larger. What about the golden era of american comics (which I believe it
was in the 60's or before ) .

Did manga sales always outperform comic sales?

Further info:

[Japan-manga-unit-sales
1990-2017](https://www.statista.com/statistics/688419/japan-manga-unit-sales/)

[1960 (american) Comic book sales
](https://www.comichron.com/yearlycomicssales/postaldata/1960.html)


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merchandise
Did manga sales always outperform comic sales?


Manga as an industry only started around the 1970s. There were manga published
before that, but not more than a few each year.

Comics on the other hand started out way earlier, so there necessarily was a
time when comics sold more than manga. They also used to come with the stigma
of being for children and manga didn't.

Then again the USA has over twice the population of Japan and it wasn't common
for Japanese media to leave Japan, while the USA has always been eager to
export their entertainment.

According to NPD BookScan (article to be found
[here](https://www.comicsbeat.com/report-graphic-novel-sales-were-
up-65-in-2021/)) in the USA alone Manga made up 76% of the graphic novel
market in 2021, which is actually a very heavy damnation for comics.


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