ICv2's chart of the Top 10 webtoon franchises in comic stores, based on sales tracked at point-of-sale by the ComicHub system, reveals the breadth of the category, with action/adventure, sci-fi, romantasy, real-life romance, superheroes, and humor all represented. It's also an interesting mix of middle-grade, YA, and adult reading, and while more than half are serialized on the Webtoon platform, others came to best-sellerdom via Tapas, Manta, and Marvel Unlimited.
Solo Leveling, an RPG-influenced action story, is consistently the top selling webtoon-based graphic novel series, and it's supported by the popular anime, which premiered in January 2024, with a second season launching in January 2025. The webtoon, which is complete, is serialized on the Tapas and Tappytoon platforms. The 13th and final print volume is set for release on August 19, 2025.
Lore Olympus is the other big webtoon phenomenon of the past few years, and it continues to have strong bookstore sales when a new volume comes out. Direct market sales, at least as measured by ComicHub, are more modest, and the lower-priced paperbacks sell better in comic shops, while the hardcover editions outsell the paperbacks in bookstores. Lore Olympus is available on Webtoon, where it has accumulated 1.4 billion views and 6.6 million followers.
We grouped together the DC Comics properties, all of which run on Webtoon, because they have a somewhat similar tone, but three of them would have made the top ten if included separately: Batman: Wayne Family Adventures, with five volumes out, was the most popular, followed by Red Hood: Outlaws, Zatanna & the Ripper, and Vixen: NYC. These titles seem to do better in the direct market, where Batman: Wayne Family Adventures frequently sells well enough to end up in the ComicHub Top 20, although it has never reached the BookScan Top 20 (it does occasionally show up in the Superhero charts).
Heartstopper, a YA LGBTQ romance, is another perennial seller, boosted by the Netflix series; it started out on Instagram and Tapas and is now available on Webtoon as well. It has 2.2 million followers on Webtoon and 500,000 on Tapas.
Miriam Bonastre Tur's Hooky is a middle-grade saga of two witches that has over 1 million followers on Webtoon; the third and final volume was published in September 2023, so it is still getting new readers.
Jeff the Land Shark started out in webtoons that appear only in the Marvel Unlimited app (where they are called "Infinity Comics") but graduated to print-first with the new series Jeff the Land Shark (see "Preview: ‘Jeff the Land Shark’ #1"), which launched on June 18. Jeff makes the Top 10 on the strength of a single graphic novel, It’s Jeff, likely also getting a boost from the fact that Jeff is a playable character in Marvel Rivals.
Under the Oak Tree is a romantasy manhwa based on a webnovel, which is also available in English. It's hardcover only, and the second volume is due out in September 2025. The webtoon is serialized on the Manta platform (see "ICv2 Interview: Manta CEO Travis Kim").
The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn, by Tri Vuong, features a paranormal investigator who’s just a skull in a trenchcoat; the series ran for 100 episodes on Webtoon and accumulated almost 400,000 followers. Only one volume is out so far. Vuong is also the co-creator (with Irma Kniivila) of Everyday Hero Machine Boy, a middle-grade graphic novel published by Skybound under its Comet young-readers imprint.
Suitor Armor is another romantasy, this one with over 1.6 million subscribers on Webtoon; it makes our top ten on the strength of the first volume, as the second was published on May 20, after the reporting period. Unlike most of the top ten, this webtoon is still ongoing.
In the number 10 slot is Stephen McCranie's Space Boy, another webtoon that is still ongoing. When Dark Horse Comics picked it up, in 2017, it had 50,000 unique reads on the Webtoon platform (see "Dark Horse Adds a Comic that Defies Space and Time"), and now it's up to 93 million, with over 500,000 followers. Dark Horse gave the first volume of this series a 10+ rating, and the most recent, Vol. 21, is rated 12+.
This chart of the top webtoon properties in comic stores is compiled from dollar sales tracked at point-of-sale by the ComicHub system at stores selling American comics around the world. During the period for which these reports were generated, there were over 125 stores using the ComicHub system. As this is a small, non-random sample of over 3,000 stores selling American comics worldwide, these rankings may not be typical for all stores, but do represent a variety of locations and store emphases.
Top 10 Webtoon GN Franchises - Spring 2025 [ComicHub, via ICv2] |
Rank | Title | Publisher |
1 | Solo Leveling | Ize Press |
2 | Lore Olympus | Inklore |
3 | DC Properties | DC Comics |
4 | Heartstopper | Graphix |
5 | Hooky | Clarion |
6 | It's Jeff: Jeff-Verse | Marvel Comics |
7 | Under the Oak Tree | Inklore |
8 | The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn | Ten Speed Graphic |
9 | Suitor Armor | Ten Speed Graphic |
10 | Space Boy | Dark Horse Comics |
The period covered by this report is January 1, 2025. These sales rankings represent sales to consumers by comic stores during the period.
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