One Piece has officially become the best-selling manga of all-time, with over 500 million sales beating all previous records. The adventure created by Eiichiro Oda has become a worldwide phenomenon, raising its status to join some pretty exclusive and iconic ranks.
The pirate adventure has managed to surpass popular American comic books and has reached this milestone this year, with the manga still ongoing. As a result, the manga is one of two literary works in history to have achieved this feat, alongside the book franchise of Harry Potter.
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The original run of One Piece started on July 22nd, 1997 by Eiichiro Oda and was published in the Weekly Shonen Jump, with the first volume released December 24, 1997. It was later adapted into an anime series by Toei Animation and first debuted in 1999 and continues to this day. A highly-anticipated, live-action Netflix series is currently being produced. Other platforms have also been blessed with the characters of the franchise including video game adaptions and a new trading card game that was announced three weeks ago.
One Piece Manga’s Record Sales In Perspective
The story of One Piece follows Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates as they explore the Grand Line in search of the world’s ultimate treasure. This great treasure once belonged to the Pirate King Gol D. Roger and is known as the ‘One Piece’. Luffy’s main goal is to become the next pirate king and has supernatural abilities when he accidentally ate a demon fruit as a kid.
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The Gum-Gum Devil fruit gave his body the properties of rubber, which is one of many demon fruits that have given pirates various abilities with the cost of losing their ability to swim. As his journey leads him to recruit many allies and crewmates, he also encounters many dangers and deadly opponents that threaten his goal.
It was reported in July of 2021 that the sales for the manga’s volumes have reached over 490 million worldwide. This made One Piece the best-selling manga series and the best-selling comic series printed in book volumes in history. The sales numbers have now been updated to show that the sales have surpassed the half a billion copies milestone, while in circulation.
These sales even surpass American comic books such as Batman, which have been written and drawn by different creative teams over the years. On social media, @newworldartur has compared and magnified the accomplishment that One Piece has made on Twitter, with the following post.
Considering the Dark Knight has been around for 83 years, it’s hard to imagine that One Piece has managed to surpass the Batman franchise. The Superman comic books are still ahead with roughly 600 million sales, however, most of the releases of One Piece were featured in the Weekly Shonen Jump collection. This means if the sales for Weekly Shonen Jump were included in One Piece‘s numbers, the amount would be closer to Superman’s figures. For a manga such as One Piece to achieve a matching accomplishment to J.K. Rowling truly shows the power that manga has globally.
The half a billion copies milestone is now shared by both Harry Potter and One Piece, which shows that Eiichiro Oda has created the most successful manga of all time. It’s surprising that it has taken this long for a live-action series, or movie, to be made since the franchise has proved how popular it is and why manga shouldn’t be underestimated. One Piece may never have reached this height if it wasn’t for the passion of its author and the dedication of millions of fans worldwide. As even the anime has passed the 1000th episode milestone, fans are waiting to see what the franchise will gift them next.
What do you think of One Piece’s achievement? Do you collect the manga released for this franchise? What are you looking forward to most from this franchise? Let us know on social media, or in the comments below, and keep following The Illuminerdi for more.
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SOURCE: Screenrant
