Japan’s 10 Best Manga Series of 2025, Ranked

The manga for The Apothecary Diaries has made it to the top 8 with 2.252 million sales in total. The series is only going to grow from here onwards. Fans can probably expect even higher numbers in 2026 as Season 3 and a brand new movie are on the way.

7

Sakamoto Days

Sakamoto Days was always a very popular manga series for Weekly Shonen Jump. Recently, it finally got an anime, with Sakamoto, the main character, facing new troubles years after retiring from being an assassin.

The Sakamoto Days anime was subpar compared to many other currently airing series, but it still popularized the manga. Sakamoto Days did very well this year, ending as the 7th best-selling manga with 2.344 million sales. Sadly, the manga is ending soon. This might be the last year Sakamoto Days is in the top 10 manga in terms of sales.

6

Blue Box

Blue Box is one of the most mainstream new manga series at the moment. Thanks to its new anime adaptation that began in 2024, its manga sales have definitely exploded. While most other big hit manga focus on battles, Blue Box is based around the lives of high school athletes.

It’s a slower series, with some romance elements, but that’s exactly what makes it special. Blue Box made it into the spot of the 6th best-selling manga this year, totaling at 2.385 million copies in circulation.

5

Kingdom

One of the most iconic long-running manga series in Japan, Kingdom is always among the best-selling series. For years, it has consistently been one of the most popular stories in Japan. Kingdom’s sales are always impressive, and it’s definitely a shame that it doesn’t have an official English release for fans to enjoy abroad.

In Japan, Kingdom made it as the 5th best-selling series in 2025, with 2.49 million copies in circulation.

4

Blue Lock

Year after year, Blue Lock has proven itself to be one of the biggest manga series in Japan. It was once the number one manga in Japan, back in 2023, and since then, it has always hovered around the top 5. Blue Lock is the biggest sports manga right now, and its story always has fans on the edge of their seats.

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Blue Lock has 3.01 million new volume copies in circulation this year, making it the 4th best-selling manga of 2025. What’s more impressive, however, is that Blue Lock has this many sales with a subpar anime adaptation. Fans often wonder how much more the series could sell if it gets an anime on the level of Dandadan or Jujutsu Kaisen.

3

Dandadan

Dandadan has consolidated its position among the best new manga series for quite a while now. It is a story that focuses on the supernatural and aliens. While it went under the radar of many fans for a few years, the anime has exposed the world to it, and it’s bigger than ever before. The series officially blew up in 2024.

Dandadan is always among the best-selling manga series in Japan, and this year, it amassed around 3.517 million, bringing it into the top 3 best-selling manga in Japan. Dandadan is going to continue strong, especially since more anime content is on the way for the series.

2

Jujutsu Kaisen

Many fans were surprised to see Jujutsu Kaisen, a series that concluded in 2024, making it so high up in manga sales in 2025. Jujutsu Kaisen ended up with 3.921 million sales this year, which is an insanely impressive number. Fans should remember, though, that Jujutsu Kaisen’s last two volumes dropped in the last few days of December 2024, so the sales numbers do make sense.

Nevertheless, Jujutsu Kaisen was close to being the number one manga in Japan again, but it lost its title this year to another, even bigger series. Fans really can’t seem to get enough of this story about sorcerers and curses.

1

One Piece

For many years, One Piece was the number one manga in Japan. However, its streak was beaten by Demon Slayer. Since then, it was surpassed by the likes of Jujutsu Kaisen and even Blue Lock. But now, for the first time since 2018, One Piece finally makes it back to the number one spot in Japan.

This is huge for One Piece fans and proves how successful the Elbaf arc has been. The adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates in the Land of Giants have been a fun ride. One Piece sales have been recovering after a few dips, and the series returns as the uncontested king of manga. One Piece ends 2025 with about 4.211 million sales. With no apparent competition in 2026 as well, One Piece might very well remain the number 1 again for a few years to come.