Berserk manga sales summary

[Aazealh]

Not that this is anything new but I figured it might interest some people. It's all based on the announcements in Young Animal.

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Announcement date	Volumes released	Amount sold in Japan	Amount sold internationally	Total amount sold
March 29, 1999	16 volumes available	10 million volumes sold		10 million volumes sold
February 11, 2005	27 volumes available	20 million volumes sold		20 million volumes sold
January 13, 2006	29 volumes available	21 million volumes sold		21 million volumes sold
April 28, 2006	30 volumes available	21.5 million volumes sold		21.5 million volumes sold
June 08, 2006	30 volumes available	21.5 million volumes sold	4 million volumes sold	25.5 million volumes sold
March 28, 2008	32 volumes available	23 million volumes sold	4 million volumes sold	27 million volumes sold
June 25, 2010	34 volumes available	24 million volumes sold	7 million volumes sold	31 million volumes sold
March 28, 2013	36 volumes available	25 million volumes sold	8.5 million volumes sold	33.5 million volumes sold
July 24, 2015	37 volumes available	27 million volumes sold	8 million volumes sold	35 million volumes sold
June 09, 2017	38 volumes available			40 million volumes sold

 

[Dar_Klink]

Awesome! Thanks Aaz! One of these days we'll beat One Piece!

 

[Johnstantine]

And on that day, aaz will be wrong about something related to berserk.

 

[SlimeBeherit]

I'd say if Berserk ever managed to do that, then Berserk took a turn for the worst.

 

[turkitage]

Thanks for this. Glad to see those numbers.

 

[Jaze1618]

Hey Aaz, maybe you can clarify here?

When I read those numbers I think 7 million internationally seems pretty low. So I have to wonder, are these just the numbers for the Japanese volumes, or are we to assume 7 million is the sum total of all international editions sold by Darkhorse, Pannini, etc?

T H A N K S !!

 

[Aazealh]

Hey Aaz, maybe you can clarify here?

When I read those numbers I think 7 million internationally seems pretty low. So I have to wonder, are these just the numbers for the Japanese volumes, or are we to assume 7 million is the sum total of all international editions sold by Darkhorse, Pannini, etc?

It includes every foreign edition as far as I know: Korean, Chinese, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Brazilian, US and so on. And while it may seem low to you, I think it's actually pretty good comparatively.

 

[Walter]

Excellent info to have, and it shows just how big an audience Miura has gathered over the years. I do wish we could see how it was broken down within each country, because I know Dark Horse sells a lot of copies here in the US.

Speaking of which, Dark Horse's website gives some indirect statistics about sales. By volume 10, they were reporting "The first seven volumes of Berserk have sold over 125,000 copies!" And by volume 14, "Over 100,000 books sold in this series in one year alone!" (Which year? Who knows!) And by Volume 31, there's a definitive number: "Over half a million copies sold!" So that's some extra info to take into account.

Also, I made a quick chart based on Aaz' data here, showing how the series has grown over the years. It's attached.

 

[Aazealh]

Speaking of which, Dark Horse's website gives some indirect statistics about sales. By volume 10, they were reporting "The first seven volumes of Berserk have sold over 125,000 copies!" And by volume 14, "Over 100,000 books sold in this series in one year alone!" (Which year? Who knows!) And by Volume 31, there's a definitive number: "Over half a million copies sold!" So that's some extra info to take into account.

Yeah that's definitely a good addition. Every member is invited to report similar announcements for any country as long as they're from a reliable (and direct) source. I'll edit the first post accordingly if we get enough information.

On a side note, I wonder what the biggest non-Japanese market is... I don't think it's the USA, but there's quite a few possibilities. Maybe I'll ask Young Animal (and not get a response).

 

[BerserkMJM]

I'd say if Berserk ever managed to do that, then Berserk took a turn for the worst.

Or the masses took a turn for the better?

 

[Xem]

On a side note, I wonder what the biggest non-Japanese market is... I don't think it's the USA, but there's quite a few possibilities.

My guess would be Italy, but I could easily be wrong.

 

[Gobolatula]

Korea, maybe, considering they got some nifty extras in volume 34. I could be wrong, but did they get a personal message from Miura?

 

[Aazealh]

Korea, maybe, considering they got some nifty extras in volume 34. I could be wrong, but did they get a personal message from Miura?

Sort of, see this post: http://www.skullknight.net/forum/index.php?topic=10795.msg180538#msg180538

As for what market is the biggest, Italy and Korea are strong possibilities, but without hard data it's pointless to guess. I'll inquire Hakusensha about it through their contact form, but I doubt they'll reply anything useful.

 

[Dembol]

Do you happen to know anything about individual volume sales?
The oricon charts only allow me to check 2 volumes back (unless I'm missing some key button which is possible with my limited Japanese) and they seem fairly stable, just under 300'000 units (after 3 weeks, before they fell off the bestseller ranking).

 

[Aazealh]

I don't think I ever wrote the numbers down unfortunately.

EDIT: I checked and didn't have anything useful, sorry.