Japan's Weekly Light Novel Rankings for Oct 9 - 15

by Snow
Oct 18, 2017 2:30 PM | 23 Comments

Here are the weekly light novel rankings for October 9 - 15

Rank / This week's sales by copies / Cumulative sales / Titles

*1.　25,091　*41,395　Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Vol.19
*2.　24,395　*39,199　Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World Vol.21
*3.　11,257　149,797　Overlord Vol.12
*4.　10,510　*18,133　Netgame no Yome wa Onna no Ko ja Nai to Omotta? Vol.15
*5.　10,212　*10,212　Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry Vol.13
*6.　*9,981　*16,067　Kumo desu ga, Nani ka? Vol.7
*7.　*8,966　*16,123　Kyoukaisenjou no Horizon Vol.24
*8.　*8,259　169,195　Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. Vol.12
*9.　*7,794　207,666　Sword Art Online Vol.20
10.　*7,313　*26,276　Kokuhaku Yokou Renshuu "Heart no Shuchou"

11.　*5,674　**9,362　Saikyou no Kanteishi tte Dare no Koto? Vol.2
12.　*5,623　**5,623　Seiken Tsukai no World Break Vol.21
13.　*5,570　*59,922　Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu Vol.14
14.　*5,446　**5,446　Nanchatte Cinderella: Outo Meikyuu-hen - Shitamachi de, Kanban Musume Hajimemashita.
15.　*4,919　**4,919　Hamamura Nagisa no Keisan Note Vol.8
16.　*4,192　**4,192　Slime Taoshite 300-nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Level Max ni Nattemashita Vol.4
17.　*4,140　*13,844　Kekkai Sensen 2
18.　*3,873　*37,590　Knights & Magic Vol.8
19.　*3,108　**5,223　Isekai Tensei no Bouknsha Vol.2
20.　*3,070　104,083　Imouto sae Ireba Ii.

21.　*3,033　**3,033　Tensei Tantou Megami ga 100-nin Ita node Cheat Skill 100-ko Moraeta
22.　*2,713　*97,972　Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e Vol.4
23.　*2,654　**2,654　Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2202: Ai no Senshi-tachi Vol.1
24.　*2,512　**8,970　Black Clover: Kishidan no Sho
25.　*2,291　**5,135　Outo no Gakuen ni Kyousei Renkou sareta Saikyou no Dragon-Rider wa Chou ga Tsukuhodo Inakamono

Separated by Specific Ranking

Bunko
*3.　25,091　*41,395　Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Vol.19
*4.　24,395　*39,199　Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World Vol.21
13.　10,510　*18,133　Netgame no Yome wa Onna no Ko ja Nai to Omotta? Vol.15
14.　10,212　*10,212　Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry Vol.13
16.　*8,966　*16,123　Kyoukaisenjou no Horizon Vol.24
19.　*8,259　169,195　Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. Vol.12
22.　*7,794　207,666　Sword Art Online Vol.20
24.　*7,313　*26,276　Kokuhaku Yokou Renshuu "Heart no Shuchou"
40.　*5,623　**5,623　Seiken Tsukai no World Break Vol.21
41.　*5,570　*59,922　Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu Vol.14

44.　*5,446　**5,446　Nanchatte Cinderella: Outo Meikyuu-hen - Shitamachi de, Kanban Musume Hajimemashita.
45.　*4,919　**4,919　Hamamura Nagisa no Keisan Note Vol.8
(cut-off 4,242)

Book
*8.　11,257　149,797　Overlord Vol.12
11.　*9,981　*16,067　Kumo desu ga, Nani ka? Vol.7
39.　*5,674　**9,362　Saikyou no Kanteishi tte Dare no Koto? Vol.2
(cut-off 4,805)

Literature Books Genre (duplicates removed)
*9.　*4,192　**4,192　Slime Taoshite 300-nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Level Max ni Nattemashita Vol.4
10.　*4,140　*13,844　Kekkai Sensen 2
15.　*3,108　**5,223　Isekai Tensei no Bouknsha Vol.2
16.　*3,033　**3,033　Tensei Tantou Megami ga 100-nin Ita node Cheat Skill 100-ko Moraeta
18.　*2,654　**2,654　Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2202: Ai no Senshi-tachi Vol.1
19.　*2,512　**8,970　Black Clover: Kishidan no Sho
20.　*2,291　**5,135　Outo no Gakuen ni Kyousei Renkou sareta Saikyou no Dragon-Rider wa Chou ga Tsukuhodo Inakamono
(cut-off 2,291)

Source: Oricon Youtaijou

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20 of 23 Comments Recent Comments

CrazyFrogz said:

kuuderes_shadow said:

I guess you could have described SAO/Mahouka/Index (in that order) as the "big 3" of Dengeki Bunko series back in 2014, although even that much is only if you don't count SAO: Progressive. But yes, I get your point.

Well sao sell around 250K right? Mahouka 160-180K. Only index lower than 100K right?

You're talking about now (or at least pre-the latest SAO volume) - the posts you're quoting are talking about several years ago, when Index was selling more than double what it does now. Accel World overtook Index for the status of 4th biggest seller of Dengeki Bunko titles back in 2015, and it wouldn't surprise me if Eromanga-sensei's next volume does better than Index as well.

Even in 2014 Index was also behind Kagerou Daze, KuroBasu Replace, Haikyuu!! Shousetsuban and the Monogatari series in sales, so it was really 8th. By late 2015, as well as Accel World, it had been overtaken by OreGairu, the Boukyaku Tantei series, Naruto Hiden (which was new that year), DanMachi, NGNL and Overlord, putting it in 15th.

Back in 2012, of course, Index was one of the 3 biggest light novel series if you exclude SAO Progressive, but OreImo was around then, and was the #1 bestseller before the SAO anime aired, including selling more than twice as much as Mahouka (which was also beaten out by several other series that have since ended like Haganai and Baka to Test). Meanwhile OreGairu was a 30k seller. So I gathered that that wasn't the time that Jagd was talking about.

Oct 20, 2017 3:15 AM by kuuderes_shadow

kuuderes_shadow said:

Jagd84 said:

Ah, meant that more rhetorically as within the medium it itself. Index used to be one of the big 3 of LNs which include SAO and Mahouka/Oregairu.

Well sao sell around 250K right? Mahouka 160-180K. Only index lower than 100K right?

Oct 20, 2017 2:51 AM by CrazyFrogz

Jagd84 said:

Ah, meant that more rhetorically as within the medium it itself. Index used to be one of the big 3 of LNs which include SAO and Mahouka/Oregairu.

Oct 19, 2017 11:55 PM by kuuderes_shadow

Lolimancer said:

Jagd84 said:
Eh, didn't Index used to sell way more? It is one of big LN sereis here.

It's gonna be a nice long while before it goes back up. The anime is currently over 27 volumes behind the LN, not including side story volumes that should be read. Although it's not being reported by Oricon, many previous volumes are in Dengeki's top 50 sellers in the weekly ranks, so people are gonna be catching up.

Also, Kino's sustained success is a testament to the quality of Sigsawa's writing.

I can't see how without an adaptation. It's not even just this vol, but last couple of books are far cry from 150k+ seller used to be. Series rarely bounced back from something like this but with how poplar Index used to be the 3rd season might help pick things up. There was a lot of fervor on the JP twitter about S3, but it's still kinda of wired the hype hasn't quite transferred over to latest release.

CrazyFrogz said:

Jagd84 said:
Eh, didn't Index used to sell way more? It is one of big LN sereis here.

Sales ranking

SAO>Mahouka>Overlord>Konosuba>>>>>>>>>Index

How the might have fallen...

kuuderes_shadow said:
Index's sales have dropped hard with basically every other volume since about volume 2 of Shinyaku.

Where is "here" incidentally? My proxy ranking for English light novel releases suggests it's very definitely one of Yen On's lower sellers.

Ah, meant that more rhetorically as within the medium it itself. Index used to be one of the big 3 of LNs which include SAO and Mahouka/Oregairu.

Oct 19, 2017 9:17 PM by Iron_Maw

24.　*2,512　**8,970　Black Clover: Kishidan no Sho

another BC LN nobody bothered to translate T_T

Oct 19, 2017 5:47 PM by Kuma

CrazyFrogz said:

Jagd84 said:
Eh, didn't Index used to sell way more? It is one of big LN sereis here.

Sales ranking

SAO>Mahouka>Overlord>Konosuba>>>>>>>>>Index

Technically Oregairu sells best per volume, but inconsistent release puts them behind the other best sellers overall.

Oct 19, 2017 3:25 PM by -Mahesvara

kuuderes_shadow said:

Kin088 said:

@kuuderes_shadow ... sorry to bother you, but, is there a graph of some sort that shows the drop in sales of Index 'Shinyaku' ... I would like to know just how much its sales have dropped as compared to the non-New Testament volumes ...

It seems as though lots of people have lost their interest in this franchise after a certain arc...

its ok if it (graph)is not there...

Not a graph but here are some figures (which you can make a graph with if you wish)

Sales at end of wk 3 for Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index:
vol 1 - 169,972
vol 2 - 213,072
vol 3 - 198,232
vol 4 - 177,552
vol 5 - 158,288
vol 6 - 145,845
vol 7 - 146,213
vol 8 - 147,464
vol 9 - 132,181
vol 10 - 131,109
vol 11 - 130,010
vol 12 - 126,450
vol 13 - 96,020
vol 14 - 94,989
vol 15 - 75,104
vol 16 - 74,944
vol 17 - 62,739
vol 18 - 56,776

Of course, the number of days of sales at the end of wk 3 will be different between one volume and the next, but by 3 weeks the difference won't be that big and this obviously has no impact on the general trend.

Thanks a lot...
And it is just as I thought. The end of Othinus Arc at Vol 10 was the beginning of the drop in sales...Especially after it entered the Magic Gods Arc at vol 13.

It seemed people bought later vols because of how good the previous arc was, but then were disappointed at their content/quality . That's the only reason I can think of..

Oct 19, 2017 11:28 AM by Kin088

Oct 19, 2017 11:05 AM by kuuderes_shadow

kuuderes_shadow said:

Jagd84 said:
Eh, didn't Index used to sell way more? It is one of big LN sereis here.

Index's sales have dropped hard with basically every other volume since about volume 2 of Shinyaku.

Where is "here" incidentally? My proxy ranking for English light novel releases suggests it's very definitely one of Yen On's lower sellers.

@kuuderes_shadow ... sorry to bother you, but, is there a graph of some sort that shows the drop in sales of Index 'Shinyaku' ... I would like to know just how much its sales have dropped as compared to the non-New Testament volumes ...

It seems as though lots of people have lost their interest in this franchise after a certain arc...

its ok if it (graph)is not there...

Oct 19, 2017 10:55 AM by Kin088

Welp, I'm happy the anime is doing a good job in promoting Kino's light novel.

Oct 19, 2017 7:07 AM by CureEtude

IrisFTW said:

where can i check the digital ranking? tks

Bookwalker ranking for 2016: https://bookwalker.jp/ex/feature/2016_ranking_bw/index.html . Note this ranking includes everything sold on their site, but as bookwalker mostly sells light novels, and are the biggest retailer of light novel ebooks in Japan, there are a lot of light novels on the list. There is also a category ranking which can be seen here https://bookwalker.jp/ex/feature/2016_ranking_bw/index.html.
For this ranking in English, and with non-light novels removed, see https://kuuderesshadow.wordpress.com/2016/12/07/bookwalker-jp-2016-yearly-rankings-light-novels/

eBookJapan weekly top 200: https://www.ebookjapan.jp/ebj/content/ranking/uriage/genre3/?summurize=2 . Monthly rankings are the third tab and all time rankings the fourth one. The first tab is basically useless due to low sample size. I think they update once a day but not sure. Bear in mind that some light novels are included in the 文芸 (literature) section instead.

The above are series rankings, not volume rankings.

Bookwalker also do daily/weekly/monthly volume rankings which can be seen here: https://bookwalker.jp/rank/weekly/ct3/ (link to weekly ranks). The daily and to a lesser extent weekly rankings can be heavily influenced by what they happen to be promoting at the time, though. Bear in mind that these rankings update either frequently or continuously.

Other retailers do rankings as well, of course, but a lot of them (like Amazon) are weighted rankings rather than rankings of total sales over a given time period, which make them basically useless for statistical purposes unless you're constantly tracking their movement AND have a good idea of roughly how many sales are needed to get any given ranking, or else tracking every volume at a fixed point in its sales cycle.

Oct 19, 2017 6:35 AM by kuuderes_shadow

kuuderes_shadow said:

ichii_1 said:
I wonder how digital sales make up for LN sales, for manga it's about 50% but I don't think it's that much for the average LN maybe the top titles only.

It varies hugely from series to series.

For instance, Mushoku Tensei was 8th on bookwalker's yearly rankings last year, having been 9th the previous year. It's a near-permanent fixture on the light novel top 20 weekly series rankings on e-book Japan as well. Yet on Oricon's rankings it's a 10k seller.

On the other hand, Overlord doesn't even have an ebook release (except in English), and series like SAO and Mahouka only got theirs last year. Mahouka saw a drop in Oricon reported sales of about 13% at the time (and sales have remained flat since), whereas SAO's figure was obscured by the boost from the airing of the film. Incidentally, Mahouka getting 20 volumes out in one go was enough to put it 17th on bookwalker's rankings last year - well below Mushoku Tensei, which had 4 volumes out in that period. But still one place above SAO.

DarklordVor said:

Is it just me or Re:Zero sales is slowing down? I thought this was a 100k sales novel like KonoSuba? I haven't been following this series in months (lol, still can't pull myself reading after arc 3), so I'm not too sure.

Re:Zero has never been a 100k seller on release - the only volumes with sales in the 6 digits are thanks to reranking during the anime. The last volume left the rankings on 64372 after a week longer than this one has had, so it looks relatively stable. The previous volume got a fair bit more but had another 2 weeks on the rankings to get there. You quoted ImoIi's sales as well - the latest volume of that sold 25k.

Jagd84 said:
Eh, didn't Index used to sell way more? It is one of big LN sereis here.

where can i check the digital ranking? tks

Oct 19, 2017 5:40 AM by IrisFTW

Detective1412 said:
Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e sales is slowing down?

The anime which caused the boost ended, so yes.

Oct 19, 2017 2:36 AM by kuuderes_shadow

Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e sales is slowing down?

Oct 19, 2017 2:33 AM by Detective1412

ichii_1 said:
I wonder how digital sales make up for LN sales, for manga it's about 50% but I don't think it's that much for the average LN maybe the top titles only.

Jagd84 said:
Eh, didn't Index used to sell way more? It is one of big LN sereis here.

Oct 19, 2017 2:29 AM by kuuderes_shadow

Series rankings from Oricon website:
*1. Kino no Tabi -the Beautiful World-
*2. Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index
*3. Sword Art Online
*4. Overlord
*5. Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu
*6. Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e
*7. Imouto Sae Ireba Ii.
*8. Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry
*9. Netoge no Yome wa Onna no Ko Janai to Omotta?
10. Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru
11. Kokuhaku Yokou Renshuu
12. GENESIS Series: Kyoukaisenjou no Horizon
13. Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!
14. Nanchatte Cinderella
15. Knight's & Magic
16. Seiken Tsukai no World Break
17. Slime Taoshite 300nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Level MAX ni Nattemashita
18. Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni.
19. No Game No Life
20. Kekkai Sensen

(Source: Oricon website)

Oct 19, 2017 1:54 AM by kuuderes_shadow

Jagd84 said:
Eh, didn't Index used to sell way more? It is one of big LN sereis here.

Sales ranking

SAO>Mahouka>Overlord>Konosuba>>>>>>>>>Index

Oct 19, 2017 12:44 AM by CrazyFrogz

*2.　24,395　*39,199　Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World Vol.21

looks like it have a boost from this new anime adaptation.

Oct 18, 2017 9:12 PM by lazy_Modifier

Eh, didn't Index used to sell way more? It is one of big LN sereis here.

DarklordVor said:
13.　*5,570　*59,922　Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu Vol.14

Is it just me or Re:Zero sales is slowing down? I thought this was a 100k sales novel like KonoSuba? I haven't been following this series in months (lol, still can't pull myself reading after arc 3), so I'm not too sure.

It was never a 100k seller (as in after 2 weeks like other bigger titles). It's usually done 60k-70k consistently after a couple of weeks. KonoSuba also got a recent adaptation which boasted it's sales even more. It's not really a fair comparison.

Oct 18, 2017 6:35 PM by Iron_Maw

Kino selling fine - I'm pleased I guess.

Oct 18, 2017 4:40 PM by cure_potato

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