Over the past year, I’ve been keeping track of the top ten selling titles according to the New York Times and Amazon.com. While there might be some doubt about how these two companies come up with their numbers, I do see them as being good indicators of what manga is popular and selling.  I tracked the titles starting from the Week of January 3 until December 27, 2015, a full 52 weeks.

Starting out with Publishers, I looked at which publisher had titles rank anywhere on the list. It comes as little surprise that Viz Media came out on top. They have dominated both on Amazon and the New York Times for the last half of the year, and it shows with their titles ranking over half of each. Kodansha is in 2nd with Yen Press at a nearly photo finish 3rd. Seven Seas Entertainment, Dark Horse and Vertical make up the  rest.

The number of #1 titles each publisher got mostly follows the trend seen above. Viz Media dominates here as well, with nearly 3/4 of their titles taking the top spot, with Kodansha and Yen Press taking a very close 2nd and 3rd, but Seven Seas and Vertical end up tied for 4th, while Dark Horse sits sadly at the bottom.

In terms of titles ranking on both top ten lists, 200 different titles made it in 2015. Keeping with the top publishers, the top titles are all from Viz Media and Kodansha. The one switch is that Attack On Titan Vol 1‘s strong sales from early in the year made it the top title, but Viz Media’s Tokyo Ghoul Vol 1 was very close behind, and the series got three of its titles in the top ten compared to Attack on Titans two. One-Punch Man and Naruto both have multiple volumes as well. Naruto is a given, as it’s always been a strong seller as well as the series ending, but One-Punch Man must have been a big surprise. The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past had very strong sales in pre-order at Amazon, which is what has put it in the middle. Much the difference between Amazon and the New York Times is often the Amazon pre-orders charting before the titles official release.

While 200 titles were able to make it into the top ten, only one could be #1 for the week. In 2015, there were 34 titles that got that honor. And the one that was able to that the most weeks in total was One-Punch Man Vol 1. Tokyo Ghoul Vol 1 and Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past tied for 2nd while Attack on Titan Vol 15 came in 3rd. The only other non-Viz Media title to rank in the top 10 top ten was Yen Press’ Akame ga Kill! Vol 1. Shonen titles continue to dominate as well, with no shojo manga making it into the top 10 or even having ever made it to #1. Though, BL did debut at #1 twice, both being of course from Viz Media’s imprint SuBLime.

Broken down by individual lists, things change quite a bit. The New York Times had titles switching out more often compared to Amazon’s more stable listing, again, due in part to the pre-orders.

Not much has changed as we go into the new year. Viz Media is still the dominate publisher after two weeks into January. But 2016 promises to be another strong year with lots of titles already announced. Can Viz Media keep control with their monster hits One-Punch Man and Tokyo Ghoul or will another title from Kodansha, Yen Press or even Seven Seas be able to knock them down? It will be interesting to watch.