Graphic novel gross sales fell 11.5% in 2024, Publishers Weekly studies, in a take a look at yearly gross sales based mostly on numbers from Circana BokScan by Jim Milliot, with 24.4 million models bought.
It was the second yr of falling gross sales for the class – gross sales fell 22.4% in 2023 – however at a a lot slower tempo. Graphic novels remained the fifth largest sub-category in grownup fiction for the yr – nevertheless in 2023 they have been third largest.
PW’s chart doesn’t break issues down by style, so what different sub-categories rose or fell is left to future studies. Nevertheless romantasy was an enormous driver, with Sarah J Maas and Rebecca Yarrow the yr’s largest stars, main fantasy gross sales to rise by 35.8%. In non-magical fantasy, Colleen Hoover additionally held her personal, with greater than 1.6 million copies bought, as romance rose practically 9%.
The Girls by Kristen Hannah was the highest guide of the yr, with The Housemaid and Atomic Habits breaking apart the Maas-Yarrow-Hoover ascendancy.
General, print guide gross sales inched up by 1% – basically flat – but it surely was the primary enhance in three years, following the pandemic surge of ‘21. Books bought 782.7 million copies in 2024, in comparison with 759.6 million in 2020, to the trajectory continues to be stronger than pre pandemic years.
Dav Pilkey’s Canine Man: The Scarlet Shedder was the highest promoting youngsters’s guide with practically 1.3 million copies bought – and it was the third largest guide total. Regardless of robust performances from Pilkey and Wimpy Child’s Jeff Kinney, whole juvenile fiction gross sales – the place most children graphic novels are discovered – dropped 1.3%, once more basically flat.
Gross sales picked up because the yr ended, and clearly print books are nonetheless a well-liked and pleasurable pastime and collectible. Now if they’ll simply survive the anticipated rise in prices if tariffs are put in place.
The Beat is already at work on our 2024 BookScan evaluation, so we’ll have extra detailed gross sales info on graphic novels and manga because the yr progresses.
