Jujutsu Kaisen is officially Japan's best selling manga of 2021.
Japanese sales tracker Oricon released its yearly ranking of the best-selling manga titles for 2021, revealing that Gege Akutami's tale of sorcerers and curses just barely outsold Koyoharu Gotouge's Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba. Jujutsu Kaisen sold over 30 million copies in Japan this year, while Demon Slayer pulled in 29.5 million in its final year of serialization. While Demon Slayer didn't claim the overall top spot, its 23rd and final volume was the best-selling single volume of a manga in the region for the year, with over five million copies sold. It is worth noting that the Oricon sales charts only track physical sales, and do not include revenue generated from digital manga sales.
Ken Wakui's time traveling drama Tokyo Revengers came in third for the year with about 25 million copies sold. Attack on Titan came in a distant fourth, with 7.3 million copies sold. Like Demon Slayer, Hajime Isayama's titan-killing thriller also came to a conclusion this year, and published its final volume in Japan last summer. My Hero Academia rounded out the top five with a little over 7 million copies sold.
Despite a recent decline in circulation, Weekly Shonen Jump titles still continue to dominate the sales charts. Some have questioned whether the king of manga magazines will be able to stay on top, however, as many of publication's most popular titles will soon be coming to an end. As previously mentioned, Demon Slayer concluded its serialization earlier this year, and My Hero Academia announced in March that the superhero series had entered its "final part." One Piece, which is the best-selling manga of all time and has been of Shonen Jump's most consistently popular titles for the last 24 years, also appears to be entering its final act, with Eiichiro Oda dropping several hints that the long-running series will be concluding soon.
Regardless, Jujutsu Kaisen continues to be a certified hit. The manga recently announced that it will surpass 60 million copies in circulation by the end of December, surpassing the lifetime circulation numbers of older series such as My Hero Academia, Berserk, Haikyuu!! and Inuyasha. Akutami's popular manga series only premiered in 2018 and shows no signs of ending anytime soon. Sales of the series were boosted this year thanks to the premiere of MAPPA's well-received anime adaptation of the series. The series will soon also see the premiere of its first theatrical release, the prequel movie Jujutsu Kaisen 0. If the franchise manages to keep up this momentum, it is on track to become only the 19th manga series in history to surpass a circulation of 100 million copies, joining the likes of classics such as One Piece, Golgo 13, Dragon Ball, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, and Naruto.
Source: Oricon
