Adult graphic novels made up 60% of the graphic novel market in 2024, while Kids accounted for 35% and YA graphic novels were 5%.
Overall, unit sales of graphic novels declined by 8% from 2023 to 2024, but the declines were not distributed equally. Unit sales of Adult graphic novels went down 11% year over year. Manga, which made up 42% of the Adult category in 2024, declined by 18% during the same period. Adult best-sellers included relatively new series such as Solo Leveling, Delicious in Dungeon, and Dandadan.
Unit sales of Young Adult graphic novels, the smallest category, were down by 34%. The leading YA series in 2024 was Five Nights at Freddy’s, published by Graphix.
Kids graphic novels were up slightly, with a 1% increase year over year. Graphix dominates this category and Dog Man dominates Graphix: sales of Dav Pilkey’s series were 10 times higher than the next best seller, Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet.
Despite the overall decline in sales, McLean pointed out that sales of all graphic novels are still up by 103% from 2018, before the pandemic, and manga sales are up by 187% during that same period. "The net result of the pandemic is that many of the new fans that we got during that period have stayed with us,” McLean said, “So I see this as setting a new benchmark. Our declines last year were much lower than our declines between 2022 and 2023, and I do expect... that we're going to see a pretty stable market."
