The sales for Shōnen Jump have hit a surprising low based on new reports. The current numbers reflect the lowest numbers for the manga magazine in nearly fifty years. Sales have not been this low since around 1974.
Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump began publishing in 1968. It is one of the best-selling manga publications in the world. It competes with Weekly Shōnen Sunday and Weekly Shōnen Magazine, and is part of Shueisha's many manga offerings. It has published some of the highest selling manga series of all time, including One Piece, Dragon Ball, Naruto, and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.
The last few years have seen a significant rise in sales. However, a decrease is now occurring based on industry reports. This fall is significant, since sales have reached levels that haven't been seen in fifty years, since the 1970s. Newly released sales data from the Japan Magazine Publishers Association (JMPA) has revealed that the average number of copies sold for this year (2020-2021) is 1.4 million. This is a high amount of copies, but it's nowhere near Shōnen Jump's records, which have been as high as 6.5 million in 1995.
Ten years ago, Shōnen Jump had sold an average of 2.8 million copies. However, this was when series such as Naruto, Hunter x Hunter, and Bleach were still being published. Naruto and Bleach have since finished and Hunter x Hunter has been on hiatus since 2018. There are numerous other series that have been published since then, but apart from a few best-selling, standout titles (ex: One Piece, My Hero Academia, and Demon Slayer - one of which concluded last year), Weekly Shōnen Jump's offering are hardly what they've been in the past. The '70s were part of the manga publication's earliest efforts, making it no surprise that numbers would have been relatively low compared to the standout years within the '80s and '90s. Sales were around 1.6 million in 1974, up from 1.1 million in 1971. Now, sales are 0.2 million lower than that despite the magazine's overall popularity.
One potential reason for this decline could involve a shift to digital readership, particularly with Shōnen Jump +, a digital version of the magazine. There are digital exclusive series offered with this service that do not appear in the printed magazine - making it more appealing to some readers. Digital reading has also become a greater convenience for manga readers day to day, though not all digital sales are recorded and reported the same way as JMPA's markers of the physical publication. Another could be the potential offerings, since many promising series have been canceled rather quickly, with others failing to grab readers the same way as previous hit series. Weekly Shōnen Jump is known for having some of the best stories in manga history, making a lull in offerings somewhat disappointing, though hardly surprising. After all, it isn't easy to be as influential as some of the previous manga - or as long-lasting.
Despite this current low, Weekly Shōnen Jump is far from being in danger - and the same can be said for the overall comic market. Publishing markets often ebb and flow and in the future, it could easily see another rise. However, it may take a new hit series to shake things up - or at least more of a chance given to series so they can hit a stride. Current sales numbers don't tell the entire story, however, particularly since manga sales as a whole are still on the rise. This lull will likely swing around and this is by no means an indication of declining quality within Weekly Shōnen Jump.
Source: JMPA