As of August 20, the nine-volume Overlord light novel series and two-volume manga series have, together, more than 1.5 million copies in circulation in Japan. Japanese publisher Kadokawa revealed that sales of the series have been "better than expected."

An anime adaptation of Kugane Maruyama's Overlord light novels began airing in July. The first volume of the manga by Satoshi Ōshio and Hugin Miyama shipped on June 26.

In June, prior to the release of the anime and manga, the light novel series had about 600,000 copies in print. By August 1, the light novel and manga series had a total of 1 million copies in circulation.

Maruyama began the original light novel series online in 2010, and Kadokawa's Enterbrain imprint then published it in print with illustrations by so-bin in 2012. The manga began serialization in Kadokawa's Monthly Comp Ace magazine in November 2014. Both series are ongoing.