Adult graphic novel sales figures reveal nearly 30% sales jump in 2020

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16.2 million adult graphic novels were sold in print in 2020, according to a report from the publishing tracking service the NPD Group.

With those sales (led by My Hero Academia), the ‘Adult Graphic Novels’ portion of the North America book industry jumped 29.1% compared to 2019.

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Here are the top 10 selling ‘Adult Graphic Novels’ of 2020:

1. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and the Horse (opens in new tab) by Charlie Mackesy
2. My Hero Academia Volume 1 (opens in new tab) by Kohei Horikoshi
3. Strange Planet (opens in new tab) by Nathan W. Pyle
4. My Hero Academia Volume 2 (opens in new tab) by Kohei Horikoshi
5. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Volume 1 (opens in new tab) by Koyoharu Gotouge
6. My Hero Academia Volume 24 (opens in new tab) by Kohei Horikoshi
7. My Hero Academia Volume 3 (opens in new tab) by Kohei Horikoshi
8. Stranger Planet (opens in new tab) by Nathan W. Pyle
9. My Hero Academia Volume 23 (opens in new tab) by Kohei Horikoshi
10.  Uzumaki (opens in new tab) by Junji Ito

Only three of those titles debuted in 2020 – My Hero Academia 23 and 24, and Stranger Planet.

Breaking down the ‘Adult Graphic Novels’ category further, manga was the subcategory with the highest year-to-year growth: 2020 saw a 43.7% increase over 2019, with means it drove 80% of the overall category’s growth.

As a whole, North American print book sales increased 8.2% over the previous year, but the ‘Adult Graphic Novels’ category grew 3.5x faster than that even.

The strongest category overall in North America was ‘Juvenile Fiction’ (which would include Juvenile graphic novels). It accounted for one-third of all U.S. book market growth in 2020, selling 18 million more units than the previous years – an 11% increase. 

And while most comic sales figures and sell-out notices are for sales to retailers and not the readers themselves, these are sell-through numbers – with data provided by those stories to NPD Group.

Have a comic fan in your life? Check out our comic book gift guide.