Since the surge of watching and reading anime and manga series spread globally, many new manga and anime series have been gaining a huge attraction and are becoming popular day by day. The popularity of these mangas has also helped them to grow in terms of sales and take over the already popular series like One Piece, Dragon Ball, and Jujutsu Kaisen.
One such manga that has already achieved this feat is Blue Lock, a Japanese manga series written by Muneyuki Kaneshiro. The narrative of Blue Lock centers on Yoichi Isagi, a teenage striker who receives an opportunity to participate in the Blue Lock project. The top young strikers in Japan must pass trials to be selected for the Under-20 national team; those who don’t cut are barred from playing football for the rest of their lives.
The story of Blue Lock has captured the interest of a lot of fans which has made it the top-selling manga of 2023. Blue Lock has become a huge success in Japan, surpassing popular shows like Jujutsu Kaisen and One Piece, which are industry leaders in the anime and manga genre.
Blue Lock Becomes The Best Selling Manga of 2023
Recently, Blue Lock manga surpassed Jujutsu Kaisen and One Piece to become the best-selling series in 2023. With 10.52 million copies sold, the football manga has topped the list of the most popular manga, according to sales data made public by Oricon.
The anime adaptation of the football manga debuted in October 2022, and Blue Lock has been attracting fans for their side ever since. A Blue Lock movie is also presently in production, with a release date of April 19, 2024, in Japan.
One Piece comes in third place with 7.19 million copies sold just behind Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen manga, which sold about 8.54 million copies. Blue Lock has truly achieved an impossible feat and has not only become the best-selling manga in 2023, but it has also broken many records.
Blue Lock Broke Many Records
As of September 2023, 26 tankobon volumes comprising the chapters of Blue Lock, which began serialization in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine in August 2018, have been collected.
The manga became one of the best-selling manga series by November 2023, with over 30 million copies in circulation. Blue Lock took home the 45th Kodansha Manga Award in the shonen category in 2021. Furthermore, Blue Lock has achieved a noteworthy feat by becoming the best-selling spokon (sports) manga since Slam Dunk in 1996.
Additionally, this is the first manga from Bessatsu Shonen Magazine to reach this position in recent years. The fact that Blue Lock focuses on football, the most popular sport in the world, has also likely aided the company’s business efforts.
