Japanese publisher Shueisha has produced 3.8 million copies for the first printing of the 77th volume of Eiichiro Oda's One Piece pirate manga. Shueisha shipped the volume in Japan on Friday.

The 75th volume of the manga, which shipped in September, was the 12th consecutive volume of the manga to get a print run of four million or more.

Shueisha said regarding the print run for the 77th volume, "Aside from print publications, [Shueisha] also distributes its comics digitally, and our sales channels are increasing. We plan to release a digital version of volume 77 in May."

In November 2011, the 64th volume of the manga set a record with Japan's first 4-million print run. The 67th volume of the manga, which shipped in August 2012, holds the record for the most copies in its first printing with 4.05 million copies.

As of 2013, more than 345 million copies of the entire manga series had been printed worldwide and the series had sold 130 million copies since 2009. One Piece has had the highest number of copies printed of any Shueisha manga series in Japan.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web