The top selling title is Volume 1 of My Hero Academia, which isn’t surprising as it has been leading the monthly charts lately. Nine of the top 20 slots are volumes of this series, and the fact that the first five and the last four volumes are the ones that are selling best indicate two things: New readers continue to come to the series, and they are sticking with it. It’s not unusual to see the first volume or two of a series sell well enough to make the chart, but these nine volumes suggest this is a series people are sticking with.
The remaining manga are all first volumes (or in the cast of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, the first two). This is a trend that Kevin Hamric, VIZ Media Vice President Publishing Sales, pointed to in August: Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, people who are spending more time at home are reading more manga and streaming more anime, which in turn leads them to pick up the manga the anime is based on (see "Manga in the COVID Era: Binge Reading Box Sets, Volume 1s, More"). Overall, 15 of the top 20 titles are manga, and all but one is published by VIZ Media.
As for the other five titles, only one is a superhero book: the 2019 edition of Watchmen. Strange Planet, Stranger Planet, and Snug are all based on Instagram comics that have a strong social media presence. And March: Book One has charted repeatedly over the course of the year, with new attention being drawn to it by the death of its principal author, Rep. John Lewis.
|
NPD BookScan Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels – Full Year 2020 (1/5/20 - 1/2/21) |
|||
|
Rank |
Title |
Author |
Publisher |
|
1 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 1 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
2 |
STRANGE PLANET HC |
NATHAN W. PYLE |
MORROW GIFT |
|
3 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 2 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
4 |
DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA VOL. 1 |
KOYOHARU GOTOUGE |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
5 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 24 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
6 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 3 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
7 |
STRANGER PLANET HC |
NATHAN W. PYLE |
MORROW GIFT |
|
8 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 23 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
9 |
UZUMAKI HC |
JUNJI ITO |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
10 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 4 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
11 |
MARCH: BOOK ONE |
JOHN LEWIS |
TOP SHELF PROD. |
|
12 |
SNUG: A COLLECTION OF COMICS ABOUT DATING YOUR BEST FRIEND HC |
CATANA CHETWYND |
ANDREWS & MCMEEL |
|
13 |
DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA VOL. 2 |
KOYOHARU GOTOUGE |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
14 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 5 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
15 |
WATCHMEN (2019 EDITION) |
ALAN MOORE |
DC COMICS |
|
16 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 25 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
17 |
HAIKYU!! VOL. 1 |
HARUICHI FURUDATE |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
18 |
TOILET-BOUND HANAKO-KUN VOL. 1 |
AIDAIRO |
YEN PRESS |
|
19 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 22 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
20 |
TOKYO GHOUL VOL. 1 |
SUI ISHIDA |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
Source: The NPD Group/BookScan |
|||
For charts of Full Year 2020 graphic novel sales from NPD BookScan:
Full Year 2020 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero Graphic Novels
Full Year 2020 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels
For the charts with the actual sales numbers from NPD BookScan, see these articles on the ICv2 Pro site:
Full Year 2020 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
Full Year 2020 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
Full Year 2020 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
NPD BookScan collects weekly point-of-sale data on print books from over 16,000 locations including e-tailers, chains, mass merchandisers, independent bookstores, and more. NPD BookScan covers approximately 85% of the U.S. trade print book market. The ranks on this chart are based on piece sales. Some publishers classify titles that are primarily text, or art books, as graphic novels; we've removed those titles from the ranking above.
For past BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novel lists, see the "BookScan Top 20 GN Index."