Japan's Yearly Manga and Light Novel Rankings for 2021

by Snow
Nov 29, 2021 4:00 AM | 37 Comments

Here are the manga and light novel sales rankings for the fiscal year of 2021 (November 23, 2020 to November 21, 2021).

Manga Sales by Series

*1.　30,917,746　Jujutsu Kaisen
*2.　29,511,021　Kimetsu no Yaiba
*3.　24,981,486　Tokyo卍Revengers
*4.　*7,332,398　Shingeki no Kyojin
*5.　*7,020,361　Boku no Hero Academia

Manga Sales by Volume
*1.　5,171,440　Kimetsu no Yaiba Vol.23
*2.　2,374,621　Kimetsu no Yaiba Gaiden
*3.　2,312,250　Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.14
*4.　2,306,950　Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.15
*5.　2,098,087　Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.16
*6.　2,018,042　One Piece Vol.98
*7.　1,930,831　Jujutsu Kaisen 0: Tokyo Toritsu Jujutsu Koutou Senmon Gakkou
*8.　1,863,574　One Piece Vol.99
*9.　1,839,886　One Piece Vol.100
10.　1,772,617　Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.13

11.　1,772,331　Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.9
12.　1,770,228　Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.8
13.　1,765,995　Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.1
14.　1,759,287　Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.12
15.　1,749,558　Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.10
16.　1,748,084　Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.11
17.　1,732,361　Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.2
18.　1,710,326　Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.7
19.　1,705,266　Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.4
20.　1,702,581　Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.3

21.　1,700,316　Kimetsu no Yaiba Official Fanbook Vol.2
22.　1,694,028　Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.6
23.　1,688,854　Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.5
24.　1,628,943　Jujutsu Kaisen Vol.17
25.　1,340,233　Kimetsu no Yaiba Vol.22
26.　1,256,922　Shingeki no Kyojin Vol.33
27.　1,229,131　Spy x Family Vol.6
28.　1,158,245　Kimetsu no Yaiba Vol.19
29.　1,157,633　Kimetsu no Yaiba Vol.18
30.　1,130,381　Kimetsu no Yaiba Vol.20

Light Novel Sales by Series
*1.　776,320　Kimetsu no Yaiba Novels
*2.　597,819　Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken
*3.　496,626　Kusuriya no Hitorigoto
*4.　424,173　Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu
*5.　367,984　Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru.

Light Novel Sales by Volumes
*1.　259,960　Jujutsu Kaisen: Yuku Natsu to Kaeru Aki
*2.　227,474　Jujutsu Kaisen: Yoake no Ibara Michi
*3.　208,693　Kimetsu no Yaiba: Kaze no Michishirube
*4.　183,304　Kimetsu no Yaiba: Shiawase no Hana
*5.　180,389　Kimetsu no Yaiba: Kataha no Chou
**.　148,959　Sword Art Online Vol.25

Light Novels Separated by Specific Ranking

Source: Oricon

← Japan's Yearly Manga and Light Novel Rankings for 2021 (First Half)

20 of 37 Comments Recent Comments

So happy for Jujutsu Kaisen, Kimetsu no Yaiba, Tokyo卍Revengers, Shingeki no Kyojin, Boku no Hero Academia and One Piece. Impressive sales overall.

And in the LN side, glad to see Kimetsu no Yaiba, Re:Zero, Jujutsu Kaisen, SAO and Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru.

Dec 6, 2021 4:52 AM by Andan210

Kusuriya maintaining its trend of ranking second among original ( so not counting novel adaptation of a manga) LN with ease every year for several years in a row now, while having no anime adaptation and only 1-2 volumes per year.
That's consistency in popularity and in quality for ye.

Dec 5, 2021 4:02 PM by Zefyris

Danae said:
AoT's final volume didn't even make the cut lmao, it goes to show how shit it was. It's not that it didn't sell of course, but it's undeniable it would have been on the list and would have sold way more and for a longer period of time if the ending was more well-received.

KnY and JJK are dominating the charts, which is unsurprising. Tokyo Revengers' sales boost after the anime's release has been insane wow.

Re:Zero's sales have dropped significantly, I wonder if it has to do with the plot's quality in the LN's current arc ;_;

I think with the release of Chainsaw Man and Spy x Family in 2022 their sales will increase even more, although they're already extremely popular.

AoT's final volume did make the list but at place 31 selling 1,130,084 copies only 300 copies away from entering top 30. Keep in mind that this last volume has been on sale for5 mounths less than volume 33 and this number does not count the special editions of volume 34 so the number of copies sold of volume 34 is bigger, just like the last volume of KnY that has also a special edition and is missing over half a million in sales.

Dec 5, 2021 1:36 PM by ShinyHero

AoT's final volume didn't even make the cut lmao, it goes to show how shit it was. It's not that it didn't sell of course, but it's undeniable it would have been on the list and would have sold way more and for a longer period of time if the ending was more well-received.

KnY and JJK are dominating the charts, which is unsurprising. Tokyo Revengers' sales boost after the anime's release has been insane wow.

Re:Zero's sales have dropped significantly, I wonder if it has to do with the plot's quality in the LN's current arc ;_;

I think with the release of Chainsaw Man and Spy x Family in 2022 their sales will increase even more, although they're already extremely popular.

Dec 5, 2021 12:45 PM by Danae

Predictable rankings. And 3 manga series exceeding 20m copies sold is expected because of how succesful their anime is. And boost from it

Dec 5, 2021 4:08 AM by chriskor022

Some LNs not included despite looking like anime novels, might be classified as a book I guess despite not having that many pages compared to some other LNs like overlord.
Or because it's not by the known publishers or they put SAO in the spot instead to get more views.

Kagami's lone castle by Mizuki Tsujimura (published by poplar)
2 of the novels selling over 200K

Yoru Simone with 2 novels.
I have a secret by (published by Shinchosha)
Estimated number of copies sold - 168,506

Didn't outsell SAO but just so you know it.
Mugimoto Sanpo's Favorite Things (published by Gentosha)
Estimated number of copies sold - 141,895

Another one not included despite being by Kadokawa and selling more than SAO
My Happy Marriage (vol 5) by Kousaka Rito (Art) Agitogi Akumi (Story)
Estimated number of copies sold - 169,573

Dec 2, 2021 4:29 PM by ichii_1

Sweet_Escape said:
I'm stunned by JJK's numbers; I tried getting into the anime but couldn't stand more than a few episodes, so the fact that it's so successful honestly shocks me. Then again it was so typically shonen that I probably shouldn't be surprised that it appeals to so many people lol.

I'm really upset by One Piece's position though. It used to top the chart in past years but now it's struggling and is even behind Attack on Titan and My Hero Academia. I know that Oda doesn't care about rankings, but I hope his editor sees this list and advises him to get better at pacing things out, because clearly even One Piece's once loyal fanbase isn't being as supportive of Oda's work as they used to be, and it's entirely his fault for making the manga tedious to read these days.

Well there's nothing wrong with One Piece being behind two really popular manga. We should commend ODA for the fact that he has been able to stay as relevant when manga's from before such as Naruto/Bleach were as popular but failed to maintain their status.

Dec 2, 2021 4:26 PM by -khriz-

Wano is just dragging on for too long and people have lost interest.

Dec 1, 2021 2:09 PM by CharKenshiro

I'm stunned by JJK's numbers; I tried getting into the anime but couldn't stand more than a few episodes, so the fact that it's so successful honestly shocks me. Then again it was so typically shonen that I probably shouldn't be surprised that it appeals to so many people lol.

I'm really upset by One Piece's position though. It used to top the chart in past years but now it's struggling and is even behind Attack on Titan and My Hero Academia. I know that Oda doesn't care about rankings, but I hope his editor sees this list and advises him to get better at pacing things out, because clearly even One Piece's once loyal fanbase isn't being as supportive of Oda's work as they used to be, and it's entirely his fault for making the manga tedious to read these days.

Nov 30, 2021 10:11 PM by Early_Morning

wow nice to see jjk selling 30m here and tr doing very well too

op out of top5? a surprise

csm and spyxfamily doing very well without anime adaptation, im curious to see how much more sales theyll get with them

haikyuu is #10 when the manga is already complete, im so happy!

also, with apothecary diaries ranking so high in the light novel section, I hope therell be an anime adaptation soon

Nov 30, 2021 1:22 PM by SkyFullOfStars

One Piece knocked out of the top 5....What a time to be alive lol

Chainsawman and Spy x Family are gonna spike in sales too once their anime comes out so I definitely don't see OP coming #1 again next year

Nov 30, 2021 5:32 AM by Tokoya

samashi20 said:
Damn, JJK do be dominating those charts. It's impressive that after 8 years or so of being serialized, Attack on Titan still manages to be top 5 in Japan.

Aot started serializing 12 years ago not 8 years ago. Also it released only 2 volumes this year which makes this all the more impressive.

Nov 29, 2021 8:21 PM by TheGoldenCatch

Yeah nothing has suprised me. Shounen are always dominating sales

Nov 29, 2021 7:32 PM by RioAl

BigMac7 said:

Zee530 said:
Where is Kingdom?

Kingdom ranked around 8th i think

Kingdom is ranked at number 9. Spy X Family is the one at number 8.

Nov 29, 2021 1:30 PM by AddaeAkono

Zee530 said:
Where is Kingdom?

Kingdom ranked around 8th i think

Nov 29, 2021 1:28 PM by BigMac7

Again JJK and KnY dominating the list
its interesting to see chainsaw man and spy x family on the list without having anime series but unlike what some people think i dont believe that they could be on top of the list for the next year charts because their manga volume number is low ChM(11) Spy(8)
so yeah if you look at TR its because of its volume numbers it could get that number(24)
and we have Kny s2 and JJK moive and maybe s2 for next year so its hard to believe they could get kicked from their spot but i hope to see some fun things happens next year:)
and Kusuriya no Hitorigoto getting in LN ranking was good news and another reason to get anime adaption LF to it.

Nov 29, 2021 1:17 PM by AlMiraj

Where is Kingdom?

Nov 29, 2021 12:25 PM by Zee530

Damn, the top three in the manga section are hardly a surprise but seeing the Kusuriya no Hitorigoto up in the light novel section is a pleasant one! Here's to hoping for an anime now.

Even though, I disliked the ending of the SnK manga, it's good to see that it still did fairly well.

Nov 29, 2021 11:45 AM by _MushiRock11_

Demon Slayer still sold almost 30 million despite it ending like 1.5 years now lol what a beast

Nov 29, 2021 10:47 AM by deg

Tokyo Revengers still being one of the top selling mangas in Japan after the anime finished airing is very impressive. MHA is still selling despite back to back lackluster seasons. Demon Slayer and JJK continue to dominate, but I expect that to change when then animes for Chainsaw Man and Spy X Family come out next year.

Nov 29, 2021 8:43 AM by AddaeAkono

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Related Database Entries

Manga:	Jujutsu Kaisen, Kimetsu no Yaiba, Tokyo卍Revengers, Shingeki no Kyojin, Boku no Hero Academia, Kimetsu no Yaiba Gaiden, One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen 0: Tokyo Toritsu Jujutsu Koutou Senmon Gakkou, Spy x Family, Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken, Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu, Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru., Jujutsu Kaisen: Yuku Natsu to Kaeru Aki, Jujutsu Kaisen: Yoake no Ibara Michi, Kimetsu no Yaiba: Kaze no Michishirube, Kimetsu no Yaiba: Shiawase no Hana, Kimetsu no Yaiba: Kataha no Chou, Sword Art Online