Graphic novels have been growing in popularity in recent years, with 2022 marking the highest year on record for graphic novel purchases in the UK (not including those categorised into children’s and young adult), based on results from our monthly Books & Consumers survey. Purchases in 2023 were 16% ahead of five years prior, within an overall book market that contracted 2% in that time. Under 25s have consistently been the largest broad age group and have also grown their purchases most significantly since 2019 (+33%), driving up the manga market in particular. In fact, from 2022 to 2023, manga bought by 13-24s accounted for a third of total graphic novel purchases in the UK.
While manga is most prominent among buyers aged 13-24, at 70% of their graphic novel purchases in 2022-23, the genre has gained share of graphic novels bought across all ages, also accounting for more than half of purchases by 25-34s in recent years. General, literary & non-fiction has steadily taken the highest share for 35+ consumers, but manga has reached more than a third for them as well, shown below.
And how is everyone discovering all those graphic novels they’re buying? Having read the author/series/book before leads for all three broad categories, followed by film/TV adaptations, especially for manga. The latter has been growing in impact since 2016, now leading to more than one in five graphic novel purchases, rising to one in four manga purchases in 2022-23, as you can see in the below graph. Another discovery method that’s steadily increased, although on a smaller level, is video sharing sites, which contributed to 5% of graphic novel purchases in 2022-23, up from less than 4% in 2016-17. Further to that, YouTube is the top media used by graphic novel buyers, compared to fifth for overall book buyers.
The share of purchases discovered via each method varies across age groups, but familiarity with the author/series holds its position at the top across the board. Buyers aged 17-24 are the most likely to be discovering via adaptations, at nearly 30% of their purchases, while for 25-34s, more purchases were discovered by the author website/interviews/events/emails than by adaptations, with bookseller websites/emails also more impactful for this group than others. Buyers aged 13-16 attribute discovery to video sharing sites and social media in higher numbers, as well as friend/relative recommendations and reading groups, so a lot of their factors point back to word of mouth, whether in person or online.
Find out more in our recently published report The UK Graphic Novel Consumer, which digs into discovery as previewed here as well as purchase influences, channels, demographics, media usage, leisure & book activities, other genres read by buyers, and much more, with comparisons across manga, superheroes and general, literary & non-fiction graphic novels and across different age groups. To view the table of contents and a few pages of the report, click here, and please contact infobookresearch@nielseniq.com for more information and to purchase.
