Sometimes you really just have to step back and truly admire the numbers here, especially compared to print industries around the world. While ebook sales are taking off in the US when it comes to novels, with some finally breaking the million count on Amazon’s Kindle devices, the comics sales in general are dismal with monthly issues selling 100,000 at the top end on average and trade compilations reaching a few thousand copies overall, with exceptions to be had of course.
Enter a new volume of One Piece in Japan, where we have learned via Oricon that the 65th volume of the series that’s still ongoing has broke the three million mark. This is the ninth volume of the series to do this, so it’s not exactly new news for this particular volume. But that it’s been able to do it that many times continues to impress. What is new for this volume is that it did it in the space of two months, something the previous volumes weren’t able to do as it took longer. Sales were expected to be higher for this volume in general since it was given a four million print run, which is the second time a volume of the series has achieved that level. That it sold just under two million copies in the first two days should make your head spin. And then wonder why these things aren’t being dealt with globally to expand its sales reach and wonder why it’s so difficult to get even a few thousand sales of a lot of these manga in the US alone considering how many fans there are.