Increases in digital market overcame drops in physical sales

The All Japan Magazine and Book Publisher's and Editor's Association (AJPEA) released a report on February 25 that estimated that physical and digital manga sales increased by 1.9% in 2018. The market totaled 441.4 billion yen (about US$3.96 billion) in 2018, compared to 433.0 billion yen (about US$3.88 billion) in 2017.

Physical manga compiled book volumes ( tankōbon ) accounted for 158.8 billion yen (about US$1.42 billion; a 4.7% decrease compared to the previous year), while physical manga magazine sales dropped to 82.4 billion yen (about US$739 million; a 10.1% decrease). Digital compiled book sales totaled 196.5 billion yen (about US$1.76 billion; a 14.8% increase), and digital manga magazine sales reached 3.7 billion yen (about US$33.2 million; a 2.8% increase).

The digital manga market accounted for 44.9% of the manga market overall in 2018. The estimated totals for the digital market do not include advertising revenue from free or paid apps.

AJPEA had released a report in December 2017 that estimated physical sales of manga book volumes decreased by 12% from January to November of that year.

Sources: AJPEA, HON.jp (Ryō Takano)